Merlin's Story
by Kain Vixenheim
Summary: Merlin failed to protect Arthur, and Arthur did not forgive him for his magic. But now, 2000 years later, Merlin is protecting someone new-Harry Potter. In order to do so, Merlin joins the Malfoy household and goes through Hogwarts alongside Harry. Only Merlin's in Slytherin, and Harry hates him just as much as Draco. Don't know what ratings mean, pls tell me if it is wrong.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi all. This is my first story (Or at least the first one I'm confident enough to publish) So don't be too hard on me. Though I don't mind if you point out bits that don't make sense or any typos that weren't picked up by word check. In fact, forget what I just said, I don't care if you didn't like it, please just tell me. Cos I'm sitting here thinking that you all clicked on my story by mistake …**

**Oh yeah, if anyone can think of a better name for the story, please tell me. I literally just went, oh I don't know what to call this. The name you got was either that or slam my hand down on the keyboard and see what happens … but I thought that might put you guys off so I didn't do that. Same thing if anyone wants to do a cover. I don't really care what, just bear in mind that I won't use it if I don't like it. **

**I'm going to try to update at least once a week, by that I mean that I'm gonna write however much I like during the week then upload it all on Saturday. So yeah …**

**Again, my first story, don't flame me too much, but do review. Please review. I need reviews!**

* * *

"Stay away sorcerer"

"But Arthur, you're going to die!"

"I would rather die than accept help from a sorcerer. You're nothing more than a traitor!"

"Arthur . . ."

"Leave traitor. Magic can never have a place in Camelot. YOU can never have a place in Camelot!"

"Arthur please. Let me save you. You're going to die."

"Then let me die. That's what you wanted all along after all, sorcerer."

"No, Arthur, please, let me save you. Me magic –"

"Is a curse on me and my people, be gone!"

"No, Arthur, you don't understand."

"What don't I understand? My idiocy? For that's what it must have been for you to fool me all these years. You're Dragoon aren't you?"

"Well, yes. But Arthur –"

No buts – Merlin – you killed my father and you are a sorcerer. A monster. Leave Camelot. Never return!"

"Arthur please –"

"No sorcerer! If you have ever cared for me. As a friend or as your king, you will leave now!"

"Arthur" Merlin paused, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "As you wish . . . Sire" The word was different now. Before it had been mocking, a joke. Now it was just filled with sadness. "I shall leave."

Merlin turned, his tattered neckerchief near non-existent as he cast a single despairing glance back at his dying king. "Goodbye Arthur" His words were sad. Spoken so low that Arthur could not have heard him. Tears in his eyes, Merlin turned his back on his dying king. Arthur was right. He was a sorcerer. He had killed Uther. He deserved to be banished.

* * *

Merlin's eyes opened sadly. The crystals in his cave gave a half-hearted shimmer, something was happening, once the light would have been bright, blinding even. But now it had faded, even in this place magic was dying. Merlin's magic was not fading though, if anything it had increased over the years. Kilgharrah said he was the embodiment of the old religion. That he had been made to balance out the lack of magic after the purge. Now even Kilgharrah was gone. Very few creatures of the old religion survived. Merlin could feel it. When those of the old magic died he felt their pain, their lives, their souls, their magic. He felt their very being, their entire lives become a part of him. Merlin was cursed to live on. To remember what had been done to him and his kind, to see what the humans were doing to each other, and yet be able to do nothing to stop it. It wasn't that he didn't have the strength to do so, he did, but he couldn't use it. In his youth he had cursed the old religion, thought it ridiculous for not allowing him to get involved. Now however, over a thousand ears down the line, the old religion was more a part of him than anything else had ever been, even Arthur. Now he understood the balance. How important it was. The balance of the world was more important than any single life, even Arthur's.

It was not that he could not interfere. Upon several occasions he had. At the height of both the worlds wars, in both magical and non-magical counterparts he had interfered, preventing them from disrupting the balance of life and death, already so far flung off its axis. He had interfered to save them, Lily and James Potter, three times if he remembered correctly. But that was only in recent years. Before that he had done other things, both small and large. Saving some people from disaster zones that had to be, from accidents that had to happen. He prevented wars before they started, gave anonymous information to prevent tragedy. But all too o When the hatred for magic had been at its peak, Merlin had even helped four young wizards and Witches to build a school, a safe haven for the wizarding folk. But often he could do nothing. All too often no one would listen to the old man who had seemed so worried for their lives.

The wizards were no better. They were amusing. They thought having magic made them so much better than those without. They even thought of a name for them, muggles. Merlin had to admit it made them easier to refer to, but it still sounded ridiculous. He didn't have to like it.

But that did not matter. For Merlin was a monster. Arthur had said so, Arthur said that Merlin was a monster, a traitor, so it must be true. For Arthur was his king. His other half, if anyone could see what Merlin truly was, then it would be Arthur. Merlin had failed Arthur, he didn't deserve to live, yet here he was. Though maybe it was that he did not deserve the restfulness of death, the solace of no longer being a part of this world. So Merlin watched as his friends grew old and died. Thinking that Merlin had died along with Arthur. He never went back to them, he could not bear to do so, not after Arthur died. They wouldn't forgive him either.

Traitor.

The crystals were glowing again. Merlin grunted, it must be important. They hadn't been this persistent since – Merlin could not remember the last time they been this persistent. It must be important. Merlin stood, he moved his way over to a large crystal at the centre of the cavern.

"dangos i mi bod sy'n ymwneud â'r cydbwysedd" He waved his hand over the crystal, eyes glowing golden as a scene appeared within the glass. It was a house. Merlin frowned, momentarily confused by the image the old religion had chosen to show him. Then his eyes widened slightly in recognition, it was the potter house. He'd chosen to keep an eye on them after the other three instances in which he had saved them, he had assumed he would be called on to do so again. He raised his hand, mouth opening to cast another spell, one to push back that Voldemort as he entered the house, but a twist in his gut told him that this was not the reason he was being shown this, so he stopped, opting to watch and see what happened.

As he did so he reflected on this man who called himself Voldemort. He didn't quite understand his reason for choosing all these names. Though admittedly there were only two. Merlin himself had three names, but he hardly felt that relevant. After all, one was given to him by druids, one was to hide his workings as a sorcerer whilst the other was his real name. Merlin chose to ignore the fact that he had taken many other names when he went into the wizarding world, after all, he never used them long, and he did so mainly so he could buy some supplies without being fawned over as 'the most powerful sorcerer ever born', it had been nice at first, but then it just got annoying. This man, Tom Riddle, had his name, then he made up a new name, Voldemort, to cause people to be afraid, which then caused them to call the man by a different thing all together, You Know Who. It was all rather confusing in Merlin's opinion.

Merlin watched silently as Riddle killed Lily and James with a single spell. He felt sad, he always did, no matter how many times he watched those who were destined to die, he always felt guilty for not interfering, even though he knew he couldn't. He was also surprised, why had the old religion told him to protect these two so well only to tell him to let them die now? It was rather confusing for Merlin, old as he was, but he let it go. As he had so often seen, sometimes it was just best to let the old religion do its thing, and worry about why later. Everything became clear in hindsight. Then he felt a pull on his magic. The old religion did have something for him to do here, but what. An image flashed through his mind. Arthur! He rejoiced momentarily before realising he was wrong. The boy was not Arthur Pendragon. But it did not matter, Merlin could feel his magic responding to the boy's plight. If he wasn't careful he could wind up killing Riddle outright, and that would never do. Instead, Merlin forced his magic to work with what he had. As the last priest of the old religion, he could surely do that much!

All of a sudden Merlin smiled, he knew what he was going to do. Even as Riddle raised his wand, Merlin's eyes flashed golden. A life for a life. Riddle would die in the place of Harry tonight. Merlin gasped, the magical backwash was far greater than he intended. Riddle was dead, but he wasn't. Horcruxes. Merlin growled. This was not good, the power of those dark artefacts was keeping Riddle alive even when he should be dead. At least the old religion seemed to be allowing this to continue, at least for now, though it would be almost certain that one of them was going to have to die in the near future. Merlin frowned, he could not allow that, his magic was telling him to save this potter boy, but there was no way that he could do that to any degree of efficiency from here. No, he was going to have to go to Hogwarts with Harry. Merlin groaned, this was going to take a lot of work.

* * *

Merlin frowned, he hated this. His magic was not supposed to be channelled through some sort of glorified stick! He felt his emotions surge and his magic responded, lashing out at the hatful object. The wand in his hand exploded. Merlin hastily raised a barrier, deflecting a few splinters that came straight for his face.

He sighed. It wasn't that he had thought it would be easy, after all, he had seen the wand develop. Originally it had been his idea, a prop used to help focus the minds of the young and to bolster the powers of those with weak magical talents. How was he to know that in a few centuries everyone would be using them? People were just plain lazy nowadays. Merlin chose to ignore the perfectly sound reasoning that magical talent had become somewhat – weaker – over the years, now a strong wizard was someone who would have been considered average in the times of Camelot.

But it didn't really matter. Wizards nowadays used – wands – to cast their magic, and different spells as well. He may not like it, but Merlin knew he was just going to have to suck it up and take it. He wouldn't have to learn ay spells on his own thankfully, Hogwarts would do that for him, but he did however have to sort things out to the degree where he would be able to use magic without said wand blowing up in his face. That would probably be a very good indicator that there was something about him that was stronger than it should have been.

It had been so much easier the last time he had been to Hogwarts, which had admittedly been only so he could help the founders set it up, he hadn't had to use a wand then because, although it was very rare, it wasn't quite as unheard of to not use one. Though he knew that most who had done so had only done so to show off, and that the same would have been assumed of himself.

Quickly casting a spell to repair the wand, Merlin sighed. His other problem had fortunately been easier to handle. Merlin had seen that it was just going to be too confusing to have to make up family names so he had just made an entirely new family, the Emrys', which were famous for being recluses. As such, no one had seen them in the past few centuries, despite them being one of the oldest and richest family of purebloods around. They taught themselves so they never went to school. Well, Merlin though with a smirk, that was about to change. Merlin had arranged for an accident regarding the 'parents' of a young Emrys which Merlin would now be posing as. In fact, the moment he had gained control of using a wand, Merlin was going to be taken to live and grow up with the Malfoys. He had originally thought that he might just go along to be the adoptive brother of Harry, but from the Dursley's reactions to their nephew, he had doubted that they would readily accept a second orphaned wizard. So instead he had opted to become a part of a family with known connections to Riddle. This way he could keep an eye on the dark sorcerer's actions and he would already be in a position where he would not be suspected of protecting Harry. People didn't defend against that which they did not know was there, or rather, that which they thought was an ally. A technique that Morgana had used against him on many an occasion.

So all in all, all of his problems were sorted, Merlin would be going to Hogwarts to protect Harry. Well, he would be as soon as he managed to make a wand work properly. Merlin sighed, he could be here a while.


	2. Chapter 2

**Woot, Chapter two. Going well. Have I mentioned I love reviews? Yep I love em. They tell me that people didn't open my story by mistake. I love that…**

**If anyone has a problem with Draco playing such a big part then they can just stop reading this story. He's one of my favourite characters in Harry Potter, not least because Harry keeps having mental break downs and yelling at his friends for no good reason. So I'm sorry Potter fans, but I'm more of a Draco person. With Draco I can mock Harry, and if you're upset about Draco knowing who Merlin is then so what. My story. My rules. I don't care what you think (Wait no, come back, I do care, please review!) **

**Anyway, please review, I don't have any reviews yet, the last 42 people to read my work didn't care about my need for them. Though to be entirely fair on them, I have only been asking for reviews for the past hour… Ah well whatever. I'm an impatient person, and I really want reviews. Come on, you know you want to review. Look, I'm giving you extra material to work with. Please review it. **

**(And thanks to super-sherlocked-gallifreyam who followed my story while I was writing this rant)**

**But still no reviews**

* * *

"Morynn"

Merlin sighed, it was Draco. He had at first tried to simply avoid the boy, but had quickly noticed that Draco was liable to get corrupted by the other Malfoys if left alone, so had spoken to the boy, and found him a nice enough person. Even if he was rather painfully similar to a certain prat of a king that Merlin had met two centuries before hand. Both of them had the same unstoppable pride and the inability to feel regretful for their actions. Well, at least Draco didn't hate sorcery, though he had the right hair … Merlin paused. No, he thought, Draco wasn't Arthur, they had their similarities, but Merlin figured that he could probably find some sort of similarity between Arthur and pretty much anyone considering how much he was always looking for his old friend in people. Even if Draco did have a bit more of it than most.

Merlin turned, fake smile plastered over his face, knowing Draco would only call him by that if there was someone else. He was right. Merlin hid a grimace as Draco's mother followed the eleven year old into the garden. Draco had found out who Merlin was when he was two, Merlin hadn't been used to hiding his magic and Draco had caught Aithusa calling him by his real name. Merlin had then explained everything to a rather bewildered child who hadn't really known who Merlin was confessing to being. Over the years, Draco had heard who Merlin truly was, but treated him in exactly the same way, and the two boys had got along very well. As for the reason Merlin was here, he'd had to explain it many times before the two boys gave up as they realised that Draco didn't really care, and didn't need to know anyway. In fact, the boy had told Merlin that so long as he didn't have to do anything he didn't care if Merlin started catapulting stink bombs at old Mouldyvort himself. Mouldyvort being what the two had started to call Riddle once Draco realised that no matter how much his father idealised the guy, he really didn't want to become a death eater.

"Hello Mrs Malfoy."

Merlin had learned early on in the Malfoy Manor that politeness would never be rated too highly and that he should never speak out of turn. That way at the very least he was never told off, even if he was never praised.

"Hello Morynn, I came to tell you that your owl has arrived. If you come into the house then Lucius and I will be taking you and Draco into Diagon Alley to pick up your school equipment."

"Thank you Mrs Malfoy." Merlin replied immediately. He knew that the woman would later redeem herself when given the chance, but that did not mean that the woman was entirely trustworthy as of yet, he knew that if he gave her any cause to be suspicious then the woman would quickly uncover act that would likely get him thrown out of the family. He didn't have time for that.

The woman nodded, turned then left, leaving Draco and Merlin standing in the garden. Draco glanced at Merlin.

"Schools starting." He muttered. Merlin just nodded, he didn't really like talking, he had once, but hadn't much since Arthur died, now he just let Draco do it, after all, the kid was very good at finding things to say. Hurtful and rude of course, but at least the kid spoke. "That means you'll be talking with that Potter guy instead of talking to me."

Merlin stared at Draco, he hadn't realised that Draco felt so strongly about their friendship. Now, he knew that it wasn't a large display of sentiment, but coming from Draco it was like the equivalent of falling on his knees and begging Merlin to continue being his friend. It surprised Merlin to say the least, he'd never thought that Draco spoke to him for any reason other than he was the only one who was always around. He didn't let the boy see any of this however, even if he wasn't going to pretend to act like an old man, he wasn't going to let the boy know just how little Merlin knew about socialising. Not that it was his fault. Sitting in a cave for two thousand years tended to destroy your ability to communicate.

"Aw, didn't know you cared Draco." Draco shot him a glare as he said it, but Merlin continued, a familiar smile crossing his face "But I don't have to be around the boy all the time." Merlin made a face. "By Avalon, I'd probably go insane if I had to. This is the boy who lived, he probably has a bigger head than Arthur!"

Draco laughed at that, and seemed satisfied at his answer. Though secretly Merlin felt that what he did at Hogwarts would probably be influenced by what house he got sorted into. If he was in the same house as Harry then undoubtedly it would make sense for him to befriend the boy. But if he wasn't then he would still try to stick around him. After all, if Harry was anything like his father then he would be in trouble 24/7. Even though Merlin knew that it probably wasn't for the best, he did hope that he would wind up in Slytherin, that was where Draco would be, and, great that it was that his destiny would be around, Draco was the only one he knew personally, and from the boy's family history that was where he was going to end up.

Draco smirked at him then, now that he was satisfied as to what was changing, or staying the same, he had other things to do. "Wanna come practise Quidditch with me?"

Merlin rolled his eyes. Draco had probably asked him that because he knew he was hopeless at it. The last time he had been on a broomstick (Draco had been five), the thing had exploded beneath him before they were three inches from the ground. Needless to say, Merlin was not looking forward to flying lessons. "Yeah right Draco. It's not like I can get on one, you can't even fly all that well."

Draco's face went red. Merlin grinned, it was like telling Arthur he couldn't hunt, it would egg the boy on towards doing stupid things which would end in disaster and quite possibly injury. Not that it mattered to Merlin, he never had learned his lesson about provoking people with far too much pride. Well, at least Draco didn't throw metal objects at him, or attack him with swords.

"Can't fly properly" Draco spluttered, "I'll show you who can't fly properly!"

Merlin's grin increased, "That you will Draco, after all, you're the only one who'll be flying." He laughed as Draco tried, and failed, to come up with a response. "Well, come on, your comment wasn't the hardest to turn back in your face."

Draco rolled his eyes, muttering something about senile old wizards as he turned on his heel, "Come on then Merlin, if I can't fly, then you'll just have to teach me." Merlin winced at that, he had made it sound like he was better at flying than Draco, hadn't he?

"Come on Draco, you know I can't." He moaned, if he knew Draco, then the boy was still going to make him get on a broomstick.

"Yup" Draco replied happily "But you still have to get on one."

Merlin rolled his eyes, he knew it. "Fine!" He gave up "But only if you can find a broomstick your dad doesn't mind blowing up."

Draco nodded knowingly but Merlin just shrugged. Knowing the Malfoys he could probably grab any old broomstick and they wouldn't notice if it went missing.

Not that it would matter. No matter how well made the broomstick was, or how well Merlin reigned in his powers, it wouldn't matter. Old Magic did not like to be channelled through New Magic objects. The only reason his wand worked was that he had transformed his Sidhe Staff into it, the one he had been practising with before now lay in splinters on the floor of the crystal cave. He knew that if he didn't turn a similarly powerful artefact into a broomstick he would never be able to use one. Not that he was that bothered about it, he would just have to find a way around flying lessons. Until then he was just going to have to put up with Draco's teasing.

* * *

Once Draco was in the air, Merlin found himself having to admit that the boy was nowhere near as bad at flying that Merlin made the boy out to be. Draco could steer the thing well enough and had stopped messing the taking off and landings up long ago. Not that Merlin would ever tell Draco that. No, the Malfoys had big enough egos anyway, it could be bad if he allowed the boy to know that the supposed 'greatest sorcerer to ever walk the earth' thought he was a good flyer. No, that could end in very bad things happening. The least of which being an egotistical eleven year old.

So, instead of telling Draco what he really thought, Merlin insulted him instead. "Come on Draco, is that all you've got. I would out fly you in a heartbeat if you could find a broomstick well made enough for me to fly!"

It had the correct effect. Draco huffed, though Merlin could only tell because his senses were enhanced by magic. But the boy sped up, flying at speeds which probably were not safe on such an old broomstick. But Merlin didn't really care, if anything too untoward happened, he was sure that he could get Draco out safely. After all, even if he didn't enjoy advertising it, he was Merlin after all. In retrospect however, this was probably the reason that Draco was always so reckless whenever he was around, no matter what he did, Merlin was always there to get him out of any danger.

Merlin grinned, no matter the speeds, it was beginning to get a little boring, just sitting on the ground and watching Draco have all the fun. His eyes glowed gold as he activated a wordless spell.

A crow seemed to come out of nowhere, then a hawk, then a pigeon. Soon the air was filled with the birds and Draco's flying had become rather erratic. Shooting glares at Merlin whenever he had a chance. Not that he had many chances, Merlin's birds were doing a very good job of distracting the boy, and he was having to struggle to stay aloft without hitting one of the troublesome animals. Merlin started laughing at the boy's predicament. He decided against telling Draco that the birds were nothing but illusions, after all, he would find out the moment he hit one of them, he would go straight through. Until then, he could just laugh as the boy dodged animals which weren't even there. It was amusing to say the least.

Then it went wrong, Draco twisted his broomstick so he was actually flying upside down in order to avoid one of the maddened illusions. Eleven year old child that he was, Draco wasn't strong enough to hold onto his broom like that and quickly lost his grip. Though not before seeing his broomstick fly straight through one of the birds, a Tawny Owl if Merlin remembered correctly. Merlin gasped, hand extending and eyes glowing with old magic instinctively as he stopped Draco's fall, his magic causing the boy to drift slowly towards the ground instead of the headfirst fatal fall that it almost was.

Merlin ran up to Draco, eyes wide, he hadn't meant for his prank to cause anything like that. He stopped in front of the boy, mouth open to apologise to be interrupted before he could start.

"If anyone asks it was a helicopter filled with muggles from the press."

His apology dying instantly, Merlin started to laugh. He didn't mean to do so, but he couldn't help it. What with Draco's pride, it wasn't an unusual occurrence for the boy to brush something off like this, even though if Merlin had been any normal eleven year old, Draco would have died. Then again, if Merlin had been a normal kid then Draco wouldn't have been put in that position to begin with.

"Yeah right." He finally managed to get out between his laughs "Like all the other times. You really need to think up some more excuses else they're going to be seen through on sheer point of unoriginality." Merlin continued laughing, and after a while Draco joined in, even if it was at his own expense. Though Merlin knew that if he had not been so close to Draco, he would probably have been met with a fist in the face instead of laughter.


	3. Chapter 3

**First Saturday Update - yay**

**remembered I'm supposed to put a disclaimer in**

**I don't own Merlin or Harry Potter, cos if I did Merlin season 6 would exist**

**Got myself a new Beta reader - thank you super-sherlocked-gallifreyan (Hope I spelt that right)**

**And please, please review!**

**and cos I'm evil I'm going to make you want me to post the next chapter, cos I've finished writing it and it finally has Harry in it, properly, not like in this chapter. Harry actually says more than 1 word in the next chapter**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Merlin stretched. He was used to getting up early like he had done so often in Camelot, and the habit had never really left him. That did not mean that he was willing to share that information with the Malfoys. Of course Draco knew, but Merlin had rather given up trying to keep Draco from knowing things, not that Draco seemed to care. Now, however, they were walking down Diagon Alley alongside Narcissa, Draco's mother. As such, Merlin was doing his best to act like the sleepy eleven year old he was supposed to be, not that it was a problem for Draco. Fortunately, the boy didn't hate early mornings quite as much as Arthur had, but the boy still did not seem keen to drag himself out of bed at seven in the morning.

Merlin didn't really know what to think of Narcissa. He knew that she was definitely connected to Mouldyvort and his death eaters, but he also knew from his visions in the crystal cave that the woman would have a chance to redeem herself, albeit after she had already performed acts that would put her in an unfavourable position in the eyes of the rest of the wizarding world. As such, he had made sure to reserve judgement. He knew from the situations with Morgana and Mordred that more often than not paying attention to the visions would be what caused them in the first place. But he also knew from other experiences that by not interfering he could also alter things. He didn't want to risk causing the woman to not find forgiveness once Harry had fulfilled his destiny, but that did not mean that he would not be willing to try to help the woman not make the mistake in the first place.

The three of them were walking down Diagon Alley. It was not something that Merlin found particularly exciting. After all, as an immortal, he was around when the Alley was built and frequented it over the centuries. Although, he did find it interesting to see how much the place had changed. The shops had certainly brightened up since the earliest years when the street had been nothing but a gathering of frightened wizards huddled together in order to hide from the witch burnings of the muggle world. Draco was exited though, but Merlin couldn't see why. The boy had been to the street before and had even bought things from shops that the two boys had not strictly been supposed to enter.

Merlin grinned. Draco's enthusiasm appeared to be rubbing off on him, not that anyone else could see it. Draco looked to be nothing but bored as his cold eyes drifted lazily over the shops till they reached Olivanders. Merlin sighed. Of course the wand maker was going to be the first that they would visit. Draco had not been allowed a wand until now even though Merlin had his own, it had been presented as a family heirloom of sorts, and Draco's parents had been quick to demand that Merlin lock it up within Gringotts until he was ready to go to Hogwarts. Merlin hadn't really cared at the time. It wasn't as though he needed his wand to do magic, and he wasn't any good at wand magic anyway.

The old shop was as dusty as Merlin had remembered. He had only been in here on passing, simply curious as to the old wand maker's methods when he had last visited. Of course, that had been near two hundred years ago. He had no doubt that it would be a different wand maker to sit behind the counter, not that it made him feel any better. He honestly would not have been surprised if it was the same person. He had given off a sort of ageless presence when they had last met, to the point where it had unnerved even him.

Merlin raised an eyebrow as he saw the old man who was climbing one of the old shelves. He certainly looked like the person he had met before. The man seemed not to notice that they had arrived for he continued to sort through the boxes of what Merlin assumed to be wands. Narcissa, on the other hand, did not seem to have any of the patience which Merlin had learned over his long life. She cleared her throat harshly and, when the man continued to ignore her, spoke harshly and without forgiveness.

"Mr Olivander, what reason could you possibly have for ignoring the noble house of the Malfoys?!"

The man, Olivander, for it seemed that the family was still the owners of the wand shop, turned towards Narcissa with what appeared to be an amused smile on his face. Merlin found himself respecting the old man, even if he was still his junior by centuries. It took a fair amount of courage to stand up to an agitated Narcissa. Merlin even found himself wondering what house the man had been in. He could have been in Ravenclaw, for his knowledge, but from what he had seen, he could equally have been in Gryffindor for he did not seem to be lacking in courage.

"Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy. Oak and Unicorn hair, fourteen inches. Sleek. Good for Transfiguration. Your husband, Lucius, Elm, Dragon Heartstring, eighteen inches."

Merlin almost laughed. The man seemed to identify people by their wands. He vaguely wondered how he would be identified but decided that there was no real reason to risk discovery in order to find out. For all Merlin knew, Olivander might just recognise the Sidhe Staff for what it was.

"What can I do for the noble Malfoy household?"

If Merlin hadn't believed the old man incapable of it, he would have almost thought he was using sarcasm. Olivander sounded just like Merlin had whenever he had actually addressed Arthur by title. It was almost as funny to watch someone else do it as it had been to do himself.

Narcissa seemed to have sensed Olivander's sarcasm for she glared at him for half a minute before once again clearing her throat. "I am here to purchase a wand for my son Draco."

To Merlin's delight, the old man seemed to brighten at the statement, causing him to seemingly forget the 'nobility' of the Malfoys and instead focus in on Merlin and Draco. He looked between the two of them quickly and then turned around and disappeared into the back of his shop. Merlin could hear a loud banging and one incident which sounded suspiciously like a shelf had fallen on him, but the old wizard quickly returned, unscathed by whatever had happened. He clutched two boxes in his hands, then he passed them to Merlin and Draco. Merlin stared at the box, mentally kicking himself. Of course Olivander was going to assume that he needed a wand, he was a first year just like Draco.

Draco, on the other hand, had eagerly pulled out a pale elder wand. Merlin eyed it. It didn't feel like the right sort of wand for the boy he knew. Olivander seemed to feel the same thing. "Wait." His voice was barely more than a whisper. Merlin held back a laugh. It was as if the old man was trying to make himself seem intimidating and mysterious. The man grabbed the box that Merlin had been gingerly holding and swapped it for the wand in Draco's hands. Draco looked disappointed for a moment but opened the new box anyway.

Merlin examined Draco's new wand. It felt like a much better fit for Draco. It appeared to be made of Hawthorn, and Merlin thought he could sense that the core was Unicorn Hair. His suspicions were confirmed by Olivanders Mutterings.

"Eleven Inches, Hawthorn, Single Unicorn hair core, sturdy. Maybe, maybe."

When Draco just stared at the wand for a while, Olivander made as though to tell him to do something, but before he could, Draco had already waved the wand, pointing it in the direction of the back of the shop. At first nothing happened. Then a sort of silvery glow emitted from the tip, winding its way around the shop before returning to the bewildered child. Merlin had to hold back a laugh at his friend's face.

The old man, satisfied to have found a wand for his first customer, turned immediately to Merlin. He looked Merlin up and down, glanced down at the wand he was holding, then turned and ran off again.

"Wait!" Merlin called after Olivander, but it was in vain. The man was in an almost trance as he pulled boxes out of shelves, returning with about seven different boxes and placing them in a rather unsteady stack on his desk. "Um … Sir?" Merlin frowned. Was that what he was meant to call adults these days? He never really remembered.

"Yes Mr…"

"Emrys, Morynn Emrys. I don't need a wand."

"Don't need a wand?" Olivander laughed, "Everyone will need a wand."

"Well, yes." Merlin had to agree to that. After all, it was the only reason he had made himself learn how to use one of the blasted things. "But I already have one."

"Nonsense Morynn." Merlin sighed. Great. Now Narcissa was interfering as well. "There is no need for you to use an outdated relic just because it belonged to your family."

Merlin groaned inwardly. He had enough problems, but now he had to convince Narcissa to leave an already solved one alone. "Mrs. Malfoy, I would like to use my old wand. There is nothing wrong with it." Not to mention it's the only wand which won't blow up the moment I try to use it, he added silently.

For a moment Narcissa looked as though she was going to argue, and, in a panic, Merlin pushed his way into her mind (Urg, he hated having to do that). She blinked. Merlin had caused her to forget about the argument. In fact, he had convinced her that she had already bought Merlin a new wand. It was just easier than trying to argue with her. Throughout his time with the Malfoys, Merlin had learnt that all of them liked to get their way.

Draco flashed a grin towards Merlin as they left the shop. He knew perfectly well what Merlin had just done to his mother. Merlin had used the trick several times in their youth so they could get away with a bit more freedom than other children. Also, neither of them had wished to attend the dreaded 'brainwashing sessions' where they would learn how much better they were than everyone else. After all, they were purebloods. Merlin found that ridiculous, and Draco had stopped believing in the power of being a pureblood the moment Merlin had told him that his mother had been a Muggle.

They headed to Gringotts next. Merlin almost laughed as his eyes scanned the words which were engraved in silver upon the doors.

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay dearly in their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Merlin found it amusing. Especially since he had seen in the crystal visions that 'the chosen one' would one day steal from Gringotts. Although, maybe the bit about 'finding more than treasure there' was true, Harry would manage to come out with his very own dragon. Although it didn't matter now, it would in time.

Merlin followed Narcissa into the marble hall, walking side by side with Draco as he watched the goblins. He drew many looks, but the goblins did not allow themselves to stare at him for too long. Though he had hardly ever visited his vault. The goblins had recognised his magic from the moment he had entered Gringotts. The goblins respected him, and they were loyal. They may not like Wizards, but none of them seemed to hold any doubt that Merlin deserved their respect. He wasn't human anyway. Merlin was a creature of magic. As Arthur had told him, he was a monster. Though it seemed to emit him from being hated as a 'human' here.

The goblin that stood before them turned his eyes towards Merlin, seeming unable to look away even as he spoke to Narcissa. For her part, Narcissa didn't even notice. She was far too wrapped up in her own importance.

"We will be visiting the Emrys and Malfoy vaults."

"Lady Malfoy, it would be an honour to escort you to your vault however …"

"However what? Are you disobeying me goblin?"

"Never my lady. But the Emrys vault can only be entered by members of the family. It is one of the most guarded vaults in Gringotts. Even goblins do not enter that particular vault."

Narcissa glared at the goblin coldly, realising for the first time that she did not have the creature's full attention. She glanced at Merlin, and he refused to meet her eyes. He hoped that if he did not appear special in any way, then she would just overlook him. She turned back to the goblin, and Merlin let out a small sigh of relief. He noticed Draco sending him his version of an amused glance even though it looked more like an uncertain scowl.

"Very well." She snapped. "Draco and I shall visit our vault whilst Morynn shall be escorted to his own."

The goblin bowed to her. "It would be an honour Lady Malfoy."

He then summoned another goblin, who led the Malfoys away. Draco glanced back at Merlin, his look saying quite plainly that he would be expecting an explanation of what was so secretive that not even the goblins were allowed to see what it was.

The goblin from the counter now bowed to Merlin. "Lord Emrys, it is wonderful to see you again."

Merlin nodded slowly. He had never gotten used to these displays of servitude for he was far too used to having been the one to make them, no matter how long ago it had been and even if the man he had served now hated him.

The goblin lead Merlin into the caverns that stretched below Gringotts. But instead of leading him to the mine carts as all other wizards were taken, the old goblin lead him to the wall on the other side of the mine shaft. At first glance the wall was nothing special, indeed, even after careful observation it would have been near impossible for someone with new magic to spot it. But Merlin could feel the old magic in the wall and placed a hand on it.

From where Merlin's hand had touched the wall changed. The stone turned to a metal looking very much like gold and took the form of an ancient gilded door much like the one which had led into the throne room back in Camelot. Merlin pushed the door open and stepped inside. The goblin remained outside. Only Merlin could enter this particular vault because the old religion which saturated the air would attack anyone else who tried.

The vault did not have much in the way of money, or rather the artefact that were hidden within were so plentiful that they overshadowed the large, neat stacks of Galleons towered over smaller ones of Sickles and Knuts. Merlin went over to the stack and quickly sectioned off a portion of the money into a bag which he then hid in his coat.

Next he moved to the artefacts, humming softly to himself as he looked over the ones which he would most likely need in the upcoming year. The first thing he picked up was the Sidhe wand, but then he turned and picked up two scrying crystals, one for himself and one for Draco. He would need those. It wasn't as though he could just take a trip to the crystal cave whenever he needed to look into the future.

Finally he eyed the Cup of Life. He mentally debated whether or not he should remove it from the vault. He knew that the object was one of the ones which could allow Riddle to return, but something inside of him told him that he could not afford to leave it in his vault. After a moment more of deliberation, Merlin picked up the cup and placed it into the bag which he had used to store his money in earlier. It had an enlarging charm placed on the inside, so he didn't have to worry about the thing taking up too much space. He nodded to himself. He had everything he had come for. Now, he just had to go wait for the Malfoys to return from their vault. It was one of the ones hidden in the deepest parts of Gringotts, so he knew it would take them a while to return.

He left the vault and thanked the goblin for guarding what lies within it. He always did so. He found that very few wizards ever expressed their appreciation for how well the goblins guarded their belongings. As always, the goblin insisted that it was nothing before escorting him back to the main hall.

As Merlin stood in the corner of the hall, he noticed two figures had entered the hall. His magic twisted within him. The boy, looking even smaller than he truly was for he stood next to a half giant, was Harry Potter. Part of him wanted to go up to the boy and introduce himself right away, but Merlin shook his head. There would be time enough for that later.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and bit back swear words that hadn't been used since Camelot's era. Narcissa had somehow managed to sneak up on him whilst he was distracted by Harry. He turned to her, trying to keep his expression composed while Draco openly laughed at him from behind her.

"Do you have everything you need," Narcissa enquired, her eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down.

Merlin nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Narcissa turned and led them out of Gringotts, Merlin walking beside Draco.

"Can we go to the owl emporium first mother," Draco asked her politely. Merlin rolled his eyes. Draco was sucking up to the woman in order to coerce her into buying him something expensive.

It Worked. Narcissa glanced back and gave what was in Merlin's opinion [omit comma] a very creepy smile. "Of course, I would be delighted to buy an owl for both of you." Draco ginned at that and Merlin hastily told her that he didn't want an owl, but thanked her anyway.

When they got to the owl emporium, Merlin took a deep breath. The musty smell of the place, though not combined with the scent of herbs and potions, still reminded him of Gaius's chambers back in Camelot. Draco led Merlin deeper into the shop as Narcissa stopped to talk to the owner.

"So why don't you want an owl," Draco asked as soon as they were out of his mother's earshot.

"Huh? Oh, it's because I'm going to take Aithusa with me instead."

Draco frowned at this "How do you intend to manage that? Aithusa is huge. You'll never get her any closer than the forbidden forest."

Merlin nodded knowingly. "That may be true, but I'm going to use a spell to transform her into a cat. So long as she doesn't start talking, no one should know."

Draco nodded, accepting this without question. After all, he had seen what Merlin's magic could do. "Fine then, but you have to help me choose an owl. It'll probably be carrying the post for the both of us."

* * *

Ten minutes later, the three of them left the owl emporium carrying a large eagle owl. Draco had cheekily named him Kilgharrah, much to Merlin's amusement. They continued down the street [omit comma]visiting Flourish and Blotts, Potage's Cauldron Shop, and Slug and Jiggers Apothecary to buy all of their school supplies before finally arriving at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

Narcissa left them while their robes were being fitted. She said something about picking up an artefact from Knockturn Alley. Merlin's robes were fitted first, and, mercifully, the ordeal was over quite quickly. Merlin hated having to stand still for any period of time. Then it was Draco's turn. The boy was quiet whilst this was happening and Merlin found himself wishing he knew how to break the silence.

Just as he opened his mouth to ask Draco a question, the door to the shop opened. Just like at Gringotts, Merlin's magic swelled. He frowned. If this was going to happen every time he saw Harry, then there were going to be a lot of inconveniences in the upcoming year. He heard Madam Malkin address Harry as he came in.

"Hogwarts dear? Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just now in fact." Merlin snorted. The woman obviously didn't know who Harry was. Now that he had the chance to get a better look at the boy, Merlin could see that Harry was very thin and had dark hair. Merlin's eyebrows rose. The boy looked an awful lot like him, just with glasses and a scar.

Harry went up to stand next to Draco on a footstall, and, to Merlin's amusement, Draco started talking to Harry. Merlin smirked. Was he the only one who realised who Harry was?

"Hullo," Draco said "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes."

"My mother's off getting relics. I don't know where Morynn went, but I'm going to drag the two of them off to go look at racing broom next. I don't get why first years aren't allowed them. I think I'll convince mother to buy me a racing broom. I can smuggle it in somehow." Merlin got this awful feeling that whatever Draco's plan was, it would probably involve him using magic to brainwash the teachers. "Have you got your own broom?"

Merlin got the feeling that Harry wanted to be anywhere so long as it was nowhere near Draco.

"No," Harry said simply

"Play Quidditch at all?"

Merlin felt like laughing. Harry looked even more confused now, he probably didn't know what Quidditch was.

"No," The boy answered again.

"I do. Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

Merlin winced. He had tried his best to help Draco, and he was much better than he could be, but he still had a lot of that Pure Blood arrogance. It was in his blood, pun not intended.

"No." Harry seemed as though he wanted to disappear now. He wasn't really having much luck at an interesting conversation with Draco.

Merlin walked up to them, choosing to save Harry the humiliation of a further talk, and Draco from looking like an absolute git in front of the boy.

"Hey Draco."

Draco glanced over at him. "Oh, there you are Morynn." He nodded his head towards Harry. "I was just talking to him, he's going to be in our year at school."

Merlin nodded, then decided to let Draco in on why the situation was so funny. "Of course he's in our year Draco, that's Harry Potter."

Both the boys went pale but for totally different reasons. Harry was shrinking further into his seat, obviously hating the attention. Not like Arthur then, Merlin mused. Draco seemed to have realised he had been being rude to the boy that he knew Merlin was going to be protecting at school.

Draco looked over at Harry. "Sorry about that." He mumbled, Draco hated apologising. "I was a bit rude."

Merlin waved his hand, not giving Harry a chance to reply. "Doesn't matter Draco. We need to go." He frowned, remembering Draco's earlier conversation. "But if you do get Narcissa to buy you a broom, I'm not sneaking it into Hogwarts."

Draco glared at him, his expression saying very plainly that had been his plan. Draco sighed. "Fine, but you have to make it up to me."

Merlin nodded. Draco stepped down from the footstall, and the two boys went over to the counter to pay for their robes. Merlin glanced back at Harry once before leaving the shop with Draco to go look for his mother.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys, I'm back! Thanks to everyone who followed the story, and the ones who followed me (though I can't think why)**

**How to know you've been reading too much Merlin fanfiction - when you unconsciously use the word 'prophetic' in an English Exam**

**You wouldn't believe the week I've had;**

**Monday - nothing special but first day back in school**

**Tuesday - Start English GCSE Controlled Assessment, Bleep Test**

**Wednesday - More English GCSE Controlled Assessment, Chemistry Test**

**Thursday - Classics GCSE Controlled Assessment, French Presentation, Maths Challenge, English GCSE Controlled Assessment**

**Friday - Classics GCSE Controlled Assessment, RAF (Standing around in the rain for an hour listening to the major telling you off for fidgeting)**

**and its not over yet, tomorrow I get to go back to school and stand completely still in the park for three hours for remembrance day (Its not that I don't like the day but its so boring)**

**WORST**

**WEEK**

**EVER**

**please cheer me up by reviewing**

**please**

**Anyway, somehow I managed to find the time this week to write two chapters (Yet another reason I'm absolutely exhausted) so here you go:**

* * *

Merlin stood next to Draco, Narcissa, and Lucius. They were talking to him, but Merlin was not paying much attention to what they were saying. He was busy looking for Harry. He knew the boy had been brought up like a muggle born, so he wouldn't have any family to show him how to get onto the platform. He had hoped that Dumbledore would send the boy with someone else but having found out just who, he didn't have the best of expectations. It wasn't that he had anything against half-breeds, but Hagrid could be … forgetful.

He glanced at the Malfoys. Draco was having a lecture about how he was supposed to act. It was something about not disgracing the nobility of being a pure blood. Merlin didn't really care, and the only reason Draco was listening was because he knew that if he didn't, things would be worse for him later on.

Aithusa shifted in her cage.

_Merlin. _

The dragon spoke directly into Merlin's mind.

_Yes Aithusa?_

_You might want to go find Harry, he seems to be lost._

_Oh really, I hadn't thought of that._

_No need to be sarcastic, it's just an idea._

_I know Aithusa, but I can't escape the Malfoy's right now._

_They don't seem to be paying much attention._

_It's not that. How will I explain where I went?_

_Tell them you went off to insult some muggle born kid. Remember to call them a__Mudblood_

Merlin snorted. Aithusa seemed to enjoy coming up with ways to get around the Malfoys. It was somewhat of a speciality of hers. Though he had found out that she rather liked Draco, something about him being named after her species. It was that and they both had rather sly, manipulative minds.

_Oh all right_, Merlin reluctantly agreed, _but you have to stay here. They will notice me leave if I take you with me._

Aithusa grumbled at this but sent Merlin her consent and turned her green cats' eyes on Lucius as he continued to lecture Draco.

Merlin took a quick look around to ensure that no one was watching, then murmured a spell. "Cuddio fi rhag y llygaid o wylwyr". His eyes flashed gold and then he disappeared. He cast one last sympathetic glance at Draco before hurrying off to find Harry.

Harry, Merlin quickly found, was not having a very good morning. When Merlin arrived, it was just as a very fat man was pushing him out of the car.

"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine – platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they."

Merlin noticed that Harry looked thoroughly dejected and seemed to know nothing more than the muggle. Merlin cursed. Hagrid had obviously omitted the information about how to reach platform nine and three quarters. He probably hadn't even realised that he'd done it.

Merlin eyed the boy, considering how best to go about this. He couldn't just walk up to the boy. They were complete strangers. Merlin did not want to look like some kid fawning over the almighty 'boy who lived'. By Albion! Merlin had been the one who had arranged that particular miracle, not Harry.

"Have a good term," the muggle said with a nasty smile before turning, getting back in the car and just driving off. Merlin raised an eyebrow. He hadn't even spoken to the guy yet he already had the feeling that the man would agree with Uther on many things, all of them concerning magic.

_Aithusa?_

_Yes,__Merlin._

_How do you talk to a complete stranger without looking like an idiot?_

_There was silence__for a moment._

_How should I know? Everyone I meet either knew me already, faints, or runs away. I'm not exactly a social expert._

_Well neither am I_, Merlin grumbled mentally.

He sighed whilst he had been having the internal argument with Aithusa. Harry had gone to speak with a conductor. Not surprisingly, the man had thought Harry had been trying to make a fool of him. After all, the man had been a muggle.

Merlin felt his magic tingle then. He turned his head, searching for the reason. There was someone coming. Someone who would be important for Harry. Whoever it was, Merlin was probably going to have to try to look after him as well.

The reason for his magic reacting turned out to be a rather large group of wizards. All of them had red hair. Merlin nodded to himself. These must be the Weasleys. They looked just like Lucius' descriptions of them but that didn't mean that Merlin had anything against them. He wasn't even really certain of what the term 'blood traitor' meant. Merlin frowned. He should probably ask Draco about that.

Merlin watched as Harry's attention was drawn to the family of wizards. He gave a soft sigh of relief. If the boy could copy what the Weasleys would do when they went through the barrier, then Merlin would be able to put off introducing himself for just a moment longer. Harry was watching the Weasleys intently as they went through the barrier, but it was obvious that the boy still did not understand.

After the twins ran at the barrier, Harry took a step forwards. Yes! Merlin thought, the boy was just going to ask how to do it. He didn't have to do anything. But his joy was short lived. Even as Harry took a step forward, he pulled himself back with his luggage laden trolley. Merlin could see Harry biting his lip in indecision. Merlin hissed in frustration. If this kept up then the boy was never going to talk to anyone. All too soon the Weasleys were gone and Harry slumped, evidently recognising the loss of opportunity.

_Merlin_, Aithusa was calling him, _whatever you're doing I suggest you get moving._

_What? Why?_

_The trains about to leave_, Merlin could hear Aithusa chuckling through their bond_, Draco brought me on board with his luggage but if you don't hurry,__then both you and Harry will miss the train._

Merlin swore through the bond. He didn't have the time to waste being nice. He dropped the magic that was keeping his hidden and walked right up to Harry. He poked him on the arm, hard.

Harry turned around instantly "What was that for," The boy snapped. Merlin glared at him, he knew Harry was justified in his irritation, but that didn't really stop him from being annoyed about it.

"Move."

"Why?"

Great, Merlin thought, now the boy was getting all defensive on him.

"If you don't, then you're going to miss the train, and I will kill you if you make me miss it too."

Harry stared at him. He seemed torn between yelling at Merlin for poking him and thanking him for helping. "How do we get onto the platform," he eventually asked, a little cautious.

Merlin took a deep breath. Harry was being completely reasonable he knew, but there was just something about the boy that made him want to insult him. It probably had something to do with how the only person who his magic had reacted to in this way had been Arthur, and Merlin had called him a prat every day.

"You run at the wall."

"What?"

Merlin suppressed a groan. It seemed that Harry did not understand a very simple instruction. He was going to get along brilliantly in class.

"You run at the wall," Merlin repeated through gritted teeth.

"But that's ridiculous."

Merlin took a deep breath. Of course. The boy had been raised by muggles. He didn't have the smallest idea of how the wizarding world worked. Breathe Merlin, don't strangle the prat.

"It's just as I said, prat." Oops, had he said that out loud? Ah well. "The wall is charmed. If you run at it you get transported onto the platform."

Harry glared at him. Great. It was like Arthur all over again. Merlin had insulted the boy, and, this time, it wasn't even the other's fault. Harry was just confused. "There's no need to can me a prat," Harry snapped. He pushed his trolley over to the wall and faced it, swallowing nervously.

Merlin rolled his eyes. Well if insulting him worked then he would just treat the boy as he did Arthur. "Scared are you?" Taunts had worked very well with Arthur, and from Harry's face, they worked just as well here.

Harry ran straight at the wall, not hesitating for a moment. Merlin nodded to himself. Good. Harry could take care of himself from here. He walked towards the wall and looked around the station. The first thing he noticed was Harry looking around himself in awe. Normally, Merlin would not have minded, but they were going to miss the train so more motivation was in order.

"What is it you, Clotpole?" By Avalon, Merlin could barely remember the last time he had called someone that. "By Avalon, you're going to make us miss the train."

Harry jumped and then shot a glare back at Merlin. He pushed his trolley off towards the train, muttering something about rude idiots under his breath. Harry probably though that Merlin hadn't heard him.

"I heard that!" Merlin shouted happily over the crowd, earning himself a glare. He chuckled softly to himself. He knew he probably shouldn't have done that, but he couldn't help it. Harry was just so easy to tease. He shook his head. He really needed to go find Draco and Aithusa. He got on the train and dodged students as they tried to get into better compartments.

_Aithusa_, he called mentally.

_Yes,__Merlin._

_Where are you guys?_

_We're right up in the first carriage. The third compartment I think._

_Thanks Aithusa._

He closed the mental link and made his way up the train. He reached the right compartment and sat himself down next to Draco. He eyed their new comrades, deciding quickly that he didn't really like the look of them. There were two, well, they could only be described as apes really, and the other boy looked so stuck up that Merlin thought it was a wonder that he had lowered himself to actually talk to other people.

Draco glanced at him, but did ask where he had gone. Instead, he passed Merlin Aithusa, who appeared to have escaped her cage. The apparent white cat curled up on Merlin's lap, content to be ignored so long as she was left to sleep. Even though Draco did not question Merlin's disappearance, the stuck up boy did not give him the same favour.

"Who are you," the boy demanded.

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "You know you should introduce yourself first, right?"

The boy glared at him in a way that reminded him of a very irritated Arthur. Merlin barely held back a laugh. "My name is Blaise Zabini, pure-blood."

"Morynn Emrys, what do you think?" Blaise seemed to think bloodline important, so Merlin wasn't going to tell him he was a half-blood, but that didn't mean he was going to lie about his heritage to the boy. Blaise nodded, apparently having made the assumption that Merlin was a pure-blood also, much to Draco's obvious amusement.

"Well then Morynn. That's Vincent Crabbe," Blaise said pointed to one of the apes, "and that's Gregory Goyle." He pointed to the other.

"He knows me," Draco informed Blaise as he pointed to the final inhabitant of the compartment as though to introduce him as well.

Blaise nodded. "Well that makes sense. You know everyone." Merlin noticed that his tone was not a friendly one. He was probably just trying to get in well with the other pure-bloods. Although, judging from Draco's dirty look, it wasn't working. He turned back to Merlin.

"Where were you? You almost missed the train." Even as he said it, the Hogwarts express started to move out of the station.

Merlin eyed Blaise, deciding whether or not he was going to answer. Draco was looking at him intently as well. It seemed that Blaise was not the only one who wanted to know that. "I was talking to someone very – interesting – that I met on the platform."

Blaise raised an eyebrow, but Draco nodded in understanding. There was only one boy that Merlin would sneak off to talk to. "Oh, and who was that, some pure-blood," Blaise pressed, wanting details.

"Not a pure-blood," Merlin told him. Blaise scoffed at this. Apparently pure-bloods were the only ones worth speaking to. "I was having a conversation with Harry Potter."

That got Blaise's attention. The boy looked at him through narrowed eyes, deciding whether or not to believe him. "The Potter boy," he asked. Merlin nodded a confirmation. Blaise gave a nasty smile. "Oh, what's he like then?"

Merlin shrugged. "He's a prat." He said simply. He didn't really think of it as an insult, after all he had called Arthur that nearly all the time, and he was one of very few people that Merlin would follow without question.

But apparently Blaise didn't see it this way. To him, prat was just an insult. Blaise sniggered. "Well of course he is, he's a half blood," he said as though that explained everything. Merlin shrugged. He didn't really see the point of getting into an argument before he even reached the school, so he would ignore Blaise's attitude for now.

Draco didn't seem to get this either. Merlin watched as the boy's expression changed from one of faint curiosity [omit comma] to that of a devious smile that would put anyone to shame. "Well why don't we go and greet this Potter boy," Draco asked, looking around the compartment.

Blaise shifted uncomfortably on his seat. It seemed that he was unwilling to do anything more than speak behind Harry's back. Crabbe and Goyle on the other hand grinned like the dollopheads that Merlin was beginning to realise they were. Both of them cracked their knuckles loudly. Merlin shook his head, eyes half closed. Draco was going to get into a lot of trouble because of this, and Merlin was not going to help him. All the same, when Draco stood and led the two apes to go search for the unfortunate first year, Merlin followed along behind them.

Draco quickly found Harry and pulled open the door. Merlin noticed that Harry was sitting with one of the Weasleys from before. He rolled his eyes. If only the boy had gotten over being shy around strangers earlier then Merlin wouldn't have had to be so rude to him on the platform. Merlin also noticed that the two boys were surrounded by a collection of Burtie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, and all sorts of other wizard sweets. It appeared that Harry had not wasted any time in familiarising himself with wizard food.

"Hello, Harry," Draco greeted in the drawl that Merlin recognised as the one used for entertaining Lucius' business partners. Merlin winced. That was not going to help here. Harry already had a less than favourable impression of Draco from when they had met in Diagon Alley, but Draco continued, oblivious to Harry's discomfort. "I'm Draco Malfoy. We met in Diagon Alley." Smooth Draco, Merlin inwardly groaned. Remind the guy of when you all but insulted him. "This is Crabbe and Goyle." Draco gestured to the two apes.

Merlin stepped closer, so that Harry could see him as well. "I'm Morynn," he told Harry.

Harry glared at him. "You're the rude one from the platform."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Thanks for that." He said sarcastically. "I wasn't aware that I was supposed to leave you stranded on the other side of the barrier."

"You called me a prat."

"I call everyone a prat."

Draco sniggered, and Merlin glared at him. Aithusa slipped past Merlin and into Harry's compartment. Merlin blinked. He hadn't noticed her following them. Aithusa jumped up onto the seat next to the Weasley, who instantly grabbed something in his lap and moved away from her.

"Hey, watch your cat, he'll eat Scabbers"

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Scabbers?" he muttered, who was … oh, the Weasley was holding a rat in his hands. "Aithusa doesn't eat rats. That's disgusting." He decided not to mention that he had done so on occasion when famine had been really bad.

The ginger haired boy glared at Aithusa anyway, even though she had not show even the slightest interest in him. Instead, the disguised dragon was staring straight at Harry, and Merlin could see that the boy was becoming rather uncomfortable.

_Aithusa._

_Yes,__Merlin._

_You're scaring him._

_He doesn't look like he could do it._

_Huh?_

_Kill Riddle, he doesn't look strong enough._

_Neither did I._

_But his magic is much weaker than yours is._

_So is Riddle's.__Everyone's magic is weaker than it used to be.__Now,__get away from him._

Aithusa turned and looked at him for a moment before jumping off the couch and landing softly on the floor. She walked past Merlin without giving him a second glance.

_I'm going back to see what Blaise is doing_, she told Merlin as she set off back in the direction she had come from.

Merlin sent an amused glance after her then returned his attention back to the Weasley boy and Harry. Merlin frowned. That was getting annoying He really needed to find out what this boy's name was, but Draco beat him to it.

"What's your name," Draco asked. Merlin knew that there was no way that Draco didn't know the boy was a Weasley but satisfied himself with the information that Draco seemed to have decided that family names wasn't everything that was important.

"My name's Ron, Ron Weasley." The ginger sounded as though he didn't want Draco to know who he was. Merlin held back a laugh. Ron should have thought of that before he started talking to 'the boy who lived'.

"Well of course you're a Weasley. My dad told me that all Weasleys had ginger hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." Merlin winced. It appeared that Draco still had not learned how to use tact. Even though the boy had only been stating the truth, it sounded far too much like the boy was taunting Ron. Actually, knowing Draco, it was entirely possible that was indeed what he was doing.

"Don't insult my family," Ron all but yelled, standing up suddenly. Scabbers, Merlin noticed, was flung to the floor by this motion, though the rat quickly managed to get back into the piles of sweets again. Harry got up as well, though he was glaring more at Merlin than he was at Draco.

"Get out know," Harry told them, though the words were a lot braver than the force that was behind them. He almost sounded scared of what was going to happen if Draco refused. With good reason, Merlin thought grimly. The two boys were outnumbered, and Crabbe and Goyle didn't look as though they would play nicely.

"I don't really want to," Draco told Harry smugly. Merlin groaned inwardly, why was Draco picking a fight with Harry? There was no point. "You've got a lot of food here, and we haven't had any yet." At that Draco took a confident step into the compartment, followed by Crabbe and Goyle. Merlin remained where he was, trying to decide whether or not he should get involved. To make matters worse, Draco reached for a chocolate frog. Then he yelled in pain.

Merlin reacted automatically. His eyes flashed gold and Scabbers, who had been clinging onto Draco's knuckle with his teeth, was pulled into Merlin's hand. He squeezed the rat without really thinking about what he was doing. Ron yelled in anger and jumped towards him, only to be grabbed by Crabbe and thrust against the window. Harry swung his fist at Draco, but Merlin stopped that with another flash of his golden eyes. Draco glanced at him gratefully. Goyle grabbed Harry by the arm and pushed him over to where Ron was still pinned.

Draco snickered, though Merlin noticed that he had gone paler. He probably hadn't wanted this to escalate into an all-out fight. "Don't mess with me Potter. I can make your life hell." Merlin frowned at this, but that only made him look like he was backing the statement up. Draco turned and left, followed by Crabbe and Goyle. Merlin sighed, dropping Scabbers to the ground before leaving, remembering to close the sliding door behind him.

* * *

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train. It will be taken to the school separately."

Merlin nodded to himself, tugging on the hem of his school cloak that he had changed into shortly before.

_Don't suppose you'll be happy staying with the luggage_, he asked Aithusa

_Of course not. I'm coming with you._

_Ah well. It's not like I came here to be normal._

_I don't think you could be if you tried,__Merlin._

Merlin sighed as the train came to a stop. He followed Draco and the other three boys out onto the platform, Aithusa walking softly at his heels.


	5. Chapter 5

**This is a note that has no real meaning except I noticed that 8 of you read this chapter and not chapter 4, I updated twice this week guys!**

* * *

Merlin ran a hand through his raven coloured hair and raised a single eyebrow as he looked at Hagrid. The half giant was towering above the other students waving a lantern in one hand whilst bellowing at the top of his voice. "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"

Merlin winced. He could only imagine how he would feel if the giant suddenly decided to talk to him. Even though Harry already knew the giant, he had seemed a bit shy when Merlin had first spoken to the boy. He probably wouldn't exactly relish the attention from the towering half-giant. To Merlin's surprise, however, Harry simply waved back at Hagrid cheerfully before continuing to chat to Ron.

_Well, maybe he just doesn't like you in particular._

_Why are you listening in on my thoughts,__Aithusa?_

_It's not difficult __when you project them so loudly._

_After two thousand years, you'd think that I'd have a better grip on that._

_Well,__at least you got over the thing about Arthur._

Merlin felt himself going cold. His magic reacted, freezing the air around him. Distractedly, Merlin realised what he was doing and pulled back as the students around him began to shiver.

_Don't talk about that Aithusa. His cheerful manner was gone. This was an order from a __Dragonlord to a dragon._

Aithusa looked up at him sadly but didn't press the matter. In fact, she stopped talking all together, closing her mind off from the immortal warlock's. Merlin sighed. He knew he was over reacting, but he couldn't help it. He hated thinking about Arthur. Once he had spent all his time reliving the good times, but now he tried to forget. No amount of wishing would bring Arthur back. It wouldn't make Arthur forgive him, so he pretended it never happened. In Merlin's mind, Arthur had never found out about magic. He had died without knowing and that was almost as bad.

Merlin followed the rest of the first years to the boats. He knew his way around. After all, he had helped the founders create the place. It wasn't as though it could surprise him anymore. Merlin looked around, but Draco was already sitting in a boat with Goyle, Crabbe, and Blaise. Draco looked at Merlin apologetically. Merlin turned away. He didn't really care who he had to get in a boat with, but it would have been nice to sit with someone who knew who he was.

He climbed into the nearest boat, then watched as the other students found boats and began chatting with their new friends. Merlin watched as Harry came down to the shore, followed by Ron and some other girl that Merlin didn't recognise. Harry spotted him and narrowed his eyes. Merlin just grinned back at him. His was the only boat that wasn't already full. The girl had already begun to get in. Harry and Ron followed her unwillingly and continued glaring at him as the boats started to move.

The girl didn't seem to recognise the tense atmosphere and spoke easily to Merlin. "My name's Hermione Granger. What's yours?"

Merlin gave her a bemused look. "Morynn Emrys." He didn't quite understand how the girl was managing to completely miss how uncomfortable the other two boys were.

"Emrys? Really?" Hermione seemed exited.

"Yeah." Merlin answered, a little nervous. "Why?"

"Well, I'd have thought you knew. Emrys was a name that was given to Merlin, wasn't it?"

"Oh." Merlin looked surprised. He hadn't expected any of the students to recognise his name so quickly. "Yeah, I guess it does. It's because my family thinks we're descended from him or something like that."

He noticed Ron scoffing as he heard that. The ginger idiot didn't seem to believe him. Harry looked like he thought Morynn was making things up. As if he'd do that. He hadn't wanted to be famous for his biggest failure. He hadn't even managed to get that prat to accept magic.

"Well, that's amazing." Hermione was still talking, not noticing the look that Ron had given her. "It must be amazing to be descended from such a great Wizard. Do you know much about him?"

Merlin raised a single eyebrow. Of course he knew about himself, but he didn't have the faintest idea as to what the legends said. He'd never felt the need to pay attention. "Not really. I don't care about some dusty old myths."

Hermione seemed unperturbed at this. "Well, I can't think why you would feel that way. I'd have looked up everything. Do you at least know any magic?"

Ron interrupted. "Of course he doesn't know any magic. No one does yet. He's probably lying about the family thing anyway."

Merlin resisted the urge to laugh. Ron was spot on. He was lying about his relations, but somehow he doubted he was lying in the way that Ron was expecting. Instead, he gave Ron an evil grin. "How did you think I got Scabbers into my hand Ron?" Ron's answering expression was somewhat similar to that of a fish. This time Merlin really did laugh.

When the boats stopped at the shore and all the students had gotten out (Harry and Ron and practically fled the moment they could leave Merlin's company), Hagrid began to lead them into the castle. Merlin nodded absentmindedly to himself as they went, noting that the castle hadn't really changed much since he had helped build it back with the founders. He snorted. He always found himself thinking that, but Merlin had been the one to build the entire castle from scratch. He had set the enchantment on the roof of the great hall and set the muggle confounding charm which kept any non-magical folk out of the castle grounds. He admitted that the vast majority of the castle had been planned out by the founders and that Merlin had very little to do with arrangements concerning houses, but he had always found it amusing, if not slightly irritating, that the four wizards had managed to take credit for the achievement, not that he had done much in the way to stop them from doing so. Hagrid brought them to a halt before a large set of carved oak double doors.

"A' right then firs' years, yer best wait here an' I'll go fin' Professor McGonagall." The half-giant strode off purposefully, though Merlin felt that the man seemed like he might need some help in that endeavour.

Merlin sighed and then walked over to join Draco. Draco was standing next to Blaise with Crabbe and Goyle flanking him on either side. From the look on his face, Merlin felt that Draco would probably be glad of a distraction. He walked up to the boy and let his hand brush Draco's.

_You okay?_

_Huh? What? Merlin?_

_Well duh … who else can speak in this way?_

_Oh I don't know, Aithusa?_

_Yeah, but only with__Dragonlords. Sorry to disappoint,__but I don't think you count._

_Whatever, I thought you were trying to be friendly with Potter._

_Oh that? That was my amazing charm coming through._

_Charm?_

_I'll put it this way. When I first met Arthur, he swung a mace at my head._

_There was a moment of silence. I thought you said you guys were friends._

_We were. You know, after he got over our first impression.__I'm not very good at them._

Draco glanced over at Merlin, a wry smile dancing across his lips. _I dare say you aren't. What did I do when we first met?_

_Cried. You were a baby. You couldn't do much else, and I couldn't exactly provoke you.__It would have tipped the Malfoys off to just how special I am._

_They already think you're special, just in a different way._

_Thanks,__Draco._

_No problem,__Merlin._

"So how do you think they'll sort us," he asked with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "I heard that one of the founders, that Gryffindor guy, wanted to make us fight a troll."

Draco looked horrified at this. He doubted that he would actually have to fight one, but he knew Merlin's claims always had a basis in fact. Blaise on the other hand, did not appear to understand Merlin's joking nature.

"A troll," Blaise said in absolute disgust. "If we have to fight a troll, I'll be complaining to my father."

Crabbe and Goyle looked as though they might just enjoy the fight.

Merlin mentally laughed at them thinking that to be the end of it. However, Ron appeared to have been listening. "My brother told me that he fought a troll to get into Gryffindor." The boy sounded miserable, like he had been hoping it was a lie, and that Merlin had just confirmed his suspicions. Merlin held in another laugh as he saw the other students listening into their conversation. Apparently, none of them knew about the sorting hat either. This was great! If he played his cards right he could have the entire place convinced they would be fighting magical creatures to get into their houses. He'd barely gotten into Hogwarts, and he'd already found himself a great prank to pull.

Merlin sighed contentedly. From the now escalating panic, it didn't seem like he was going to have to interfere. The Granger girl was whispering spells under her breath. It was quite impressive, and the other students were having an outright panic. They were arguing and yelling and some were just standing in mute terror. How Merlin loved to make trouble. He grinned at Draco, who rolled his eyes. Draco might not have fallen for the lie, but he certainly wasn't going to put it right. It was too amusing to watch the fallout. Far, far too funny.

Merlin saw movement out of the corner of his eye. As he was rather tall for an eleven year old, he didn't have to strain in order to get a better look. He turned to see a large group of ghosts, evidently having arrived for the feast. He nudged Draco and pointed them out, drawing them to the attention of several other first years. One by one, the group of gathered students turned to see the ghosts, who seemed to be waiting patiently before they had everyone's attention. When the group was standing in a stunned silence, the first ghost spoke. Merlin recognised him as the Bloody Baron.

"Well then first years, it is wonderful to see you. I do hope that you are blessed to enter my house, Slytherin."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. Since when had the house belonged to the Bloody Baron. He'd been under the impression that it had belonged to Salazar. He decided to voice this opinion.

"Well, it's wonderful to see you to." The Bloody Baron turned to see Merlin and started to turn pale (if that was possible for a ghost). "My name is Morynn Emrys." Merlin fought the urge to laugh at the amazed faces of his fellow classmates. "But, I was under the impression that Slytherin belonged to Salazar. You know, the guy who founded it."

The Bloody Baron had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "Well," he said sounding as though he had been chastised by a teacher, "I have been the Slytherin Ghost for a long time. I thought I had the right to call it my house." To the amazement of the other students, the ghost sounded like he was apologizing to the first year.

"Well, I'm sure you did." Merlin said, waving his hand in an offhanded manner. "Well off you go then. Don't you have a feast to attend?"

To the astonishment of the gathered students, the Bloody Baron did just that. At Merlin's dismissal, he flew straight through the wall in a rather hurried manner. The other ghosts followed him. Merlin took one look at their faces before bursting out laughing. They were looking at him as though he had performed some sort of miracle, which he supposed he had really. The Bloody Baron didn't exactly listen to students.

As everyone turned towards him, ready to demand an answer as to why he had so much influence with any of the ghosts, let alone the most infamous of them, Merlin was saved by the arrival of a woman he could only assume was Professor McGonagall. The strict looking woman looked around the students, taking in their mingled looks of astonishment and fear, before settling down on the cause of them, Merlin. Merlin flashed a sheepish smile towards her, to which he gained a raised eyebrow in return.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat, and any students who were still staring at Merlin, quickly turned towards her. "Welcome to Hogwarts," she began. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the great hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house room common room."

She paused and surveyed the room. Merlin tried not to look too bored, but it wasn't really working. He had never been very good at listening to repeat lectures, and, though there were subtle differences, it was not to the degree that there was any new information in the speech.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin." Merlin noticed that she place an uncomfortable stress on the name of the final house. "Each house has its own noble history and each had produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

Professor McGonagall eyed Merlin before turning her gaze towards another boy's rather tattered cloak.

"I shall be taking you for the sorting ceremony now. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up quickly before we go in." Merlin looked around as the other students hastily tried to make themselves look tidier. He noticed with some amusement that Harry was conducting a vain attempt to flatten his hair.

"Move along now," McGonagall's voice echoed slightly in the hallway. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." She sighed a little exasperatingly as the first years looked at her, confused. "Form a line," She told them, "and follow me."

Merlin stepped into line behind Draco, and the professor led them out of the hallway, through the double doors, and into the Great Hall. Merlin looked at the decorations, pleased as he saw that the enchantments he had placed in the Great Hall had not faded over time. The ceiling was still showing an image of the sky, just as Helga had insisted. Merlin shook his head slightly as he remembered how hard it had been convincing her the yes, the Great Hall did need a roof. The candles that were floating around the tables were held up by new magic, but Merlin had expected that, the enchantment he had used on them had been nowhere near strong enough to last through the centuries.

He looked up at the large table that stood at the front of the hall. Merlin frowned. He didn't remember that. When the founders had run Hogwarts they had insisted that to have the teachers eat separately from the students would cause a social barrier, something the founders had worked hard to avoid. It saddened Merlin to see that what they had spent so long fighting to avoid had become normal practise after they had died.

At the centre of the table sat an old man. Merlin resisted the urge to laugh. The old teacher looked very much like he was trying to impersonate the figure that most people had come to know as Merlin. The man's beard was so long the he had managed to tuck it into his belt, a feat that Merlin found quite impressive. Although, if the legends had anything to say about it, the beard still paled in comparison to what his had been like, not that he could understand how that had come about. When Merlin had been in his Dragoon form, his beard had been no different than an ordinary one, though he did like to think that it had been a good one. Hey, if he had to be remembered for his beard, at least they didn't mock it.

Professor McGonagall led the students up to stand before the table and the long line condensed into a scared gathering as they came to a stand-still. Merlin watched, struggling to keep the amusement from his face as Professor McGonagall place a four-legged stool in front of them, the frayed form of the sorting hart perched on top of it. The hat was getting some very odd looks from the other first years, most of them still not having realised that Merlin had tricked them when he had told them about having to fight to get into their houses.

Draco, Merlin noticed, was looking at him with a single raised eyebrow, obviously hoping for some sort of explanation, probably so he could mock Harry for not having known the truth later. Merlin gave a quick shake of his head. He didn't want to ruin the surprise for the other students, and Draco was too far away to try for mental communication.

Silence fell upon the hall. Merlin looked at the sorting hat in a half-expectant way, and Draco turned away from him, turning his attention to the hat also. A tear near the brim of the hat opened and the hat began to sing. Merlin raised an eyebrow, it hadn't done that when he'd seen it last, it had just been used to place students in their houses.

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The sorting hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (Though I have none)

For I'm a thinking cap!

Merlin clapped along with everyone else, carefully masking his emotions as the old hat took what appeared to be a bow before settling back down on its stool. Inside, Merlin was feeling a mixture of confusion and rage, a strange combination. The confusion came from how the hat was acting. Why on earth was an object created solely for the purpose of seeing into someone's nature acting like it was such a big deal? The rage also came from the hat's little act. The thing was taking credit for magic it would never have been able to achieve if it were not for Merlin. Merlin remembered the day that Godric had pulled the hat from his head, complaining that the thing was too tight and saying he needed a new one. The only special thing about the hat was Merlin's enchantments. His spells were the only reason it hadn't fallen apart at the seams centuries ago. This hat was daring to make encroachments into territory which it had never been allowed to set foot in before. The hat was speaking as though it knew everything. Merlin had to admit that there was some possibility that the Sorting Hat did know more than most. After all, Merlin's magic did contain some knowledge of the future, but there was no reason that the object could not have inherited the knowledge from its maker.

Merlin vaguely hear Ron whispering to Harry, and, although he did not catch the words, Merlin did notice that the two boys were now glaring at his back. They were probably talking about how Merlin had lied to them. Merlin rolled his eyes. By Avalon these kids were annoying. It was as if they didn't realise it had been nothing more than a harmless prank. He allowed a smirk to cross his face. Well, if they didn't understand now, then Merlin was just going to have to take extra special care to ensure they understood how pranking worked in the future, even if he had to start a war in the process.

"Abbot, Hannah!" Merlin blinked. The sorting had begun. He watched disinterestedly as a girl with blonde pigtails walked up to the hat, glancing around the Great Hall as she did so. The girl pulled on the hat which fell down over her eyes.

There was a moment of silence then –

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The Sorting Hat yelled. Merlin nodded to himself. Even if it had seemed to take other duties upon itself, at least the hat could still do the thing it had been made for.

"Bones, Susan!" Professor McGonagall called the next girl.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat called once again.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brockehurst, Mandy!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

Merlin allowed himself to tune the sorting out. He had to think. From what he had seen of Harry, what house was the boy likely to be in? Emrys came before Potter, so he was going to have to do some guesswork, but he knew next to nothing about the boy's personality. Merlin knew everything there was to know about the boy's destiny. He knew the prophecy, the first real prophecy that Trelawney woman had ever spoken. He knew about the Horcruxes and how Harry was going to kill Riddle. He knew about how Harry would use a disarming charm, even as all sense would tell the boy to aim for the kill. But none of the information Merlin had could suggest what house the boy would fall into. Harry was loyal to his friends, so maybe Hufflepuff. He was intelligent, so he could be a Ravenclaw. He would go to extreme lengths to prove himself, the traits of a Slytherin. Yet he was brave, the calling card of Gryffindor. Merlin hissed, this wasn't going to work. Harry could easily fit into any of the houses. How on earth was Merlin supposed to guess which one he would enter? He could find out, but in order to do so he would need to check with his scrying crystal. Merlin found himself tempted to stop time so he could do so, but that was dangerous, far too risky a move for something as small as this.

"Emrys, Morynn!"

It was too late now. Whatever thinking he had to do, he would have to do so with the sorting hat on his head. Merlin stepped up to the stool and sat on it, pulling the Sorting hat onto his head. To Merlin's annoyance, his ears, oversized even at the age of eleven, easily held the old hat from falling down onto his eyes.

There was silence. Merlin could feel the hat's shock as it realised just who had put it on his head. He felt some sort of grim amusement as he felt the hat panic.

_Lord Merlin! It's an honour to meet with you again._

_An Honour indeed hat. Things have changed since last I was here._

Merlin found the hat withdraw in embarrassment before it attempted to redeem itself.

_My lord, I could not just do nothing. With the magic you have given me,__I have helped Hogwarts outside of the sorting ceremony._

_I know that hat. It is the only reason I have not already burned you for using my magic in a way that was not intended_

There was silence. Merlin gave a mental sigh.

_It matters not now hat. The only matter of any importance is that of Harry Potter._

_Harry Potter my Lord? Is this boy the reason you have returned to Hogwarts after so many years?_

_Yes hat. The boy has a great destiny, he needs protection._

_And,__you are protecting him?_

_Of course, why else would I be here_. Merlin took a deep breath. _Enough with the small talk I must decide my house._

_Of course my Lord, any of them would suit you. Perhaps Ravenclaw, for your intellect?_

_That is not what I meant hat. You know perfectly well what I meant._

_Of course I do, but I cannot predict the boys house any better than you can without looking into his mind. It is a great shame that you are being sorted first._

_I am aware of that_, Merlin snapped. He didn't enjoy being talked down to by one of his own creations. _Perhaps … _Merlin smirked. _You could always manipulate the house which Harry is sent to, can you not._

_I can my Lord, but would it be a good idea to do so?_

_Not under normal circumstances no, but this is for the boys protection._

_Very well, what house shall I send you both to?_

Now it was Merlin's turn to think. You might as well put us in Slytherin. Harry will need to learn the art of secrets if he is to survive.

_As you wish my lord._

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat called to the waiting students. Merlin stood, placing the hat back upon the stool before walking out to his new house. He sat down on the bench, ignoring their words of welcome as he turned back to watch the rest of the sorting.

Merlin watched as both Hermione and the scruffy boy from earlier became Gryffindors. Merlin raised his eyebrows in surprise. From what he had seem of Hermione, the girl had seemed more like a Ravenclaw, though he supposed he had not spoken to her for long.

"Potter, Harry"

Merlin sat a little straighter as he watched the entire Great Hall focus in on Harry Potter. Merlin watched him, unblinking as the boy sat on the stool and placed the hat on his head. There was silence.

The silence was deafening, no one was moving. It was as if everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the outcome of this single sorting.

Why wasn't the hat speaking. It wasn't a hard decision. Just put the boy in Slytherin like Merlin had told it to.

There was still no noise.

People began shuffling, unsure as to what was taking so long.

Merlin watched the boy's expression, waiting for the moment of the announcement.

The hat did not speak.

Was the thing broken?

Surely it wasn't that difficult for the hat to place the boy in Slytherin, even if it was the wrong house?

Merlin watched Harry, observing the boy's tensely shut eyes, the almost unnoticeable movement as the boy repeated some thing over and over.

Please not Slytherin.

Merlin's eyes widened in understanding. The hat was making a very difficult choice, to obey its maker or to listen to the one it was sorting. Both of which were its primary objectives, things it had been made to do. How could it choose which instinct to listen to?

Merlin saw it, the twitch of the hat's brim opening to speak.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

A cheer rose from the table that the boy now made his way over to, slipping into his seat next to Hermione Granger. Merlin hissed, but he could not fault the hat for its actions. He understood why it had done what it had.

But that did not mean he was not angry. He was angry. His plan for defending the boy had been made just that much more difficult. A Gryffindor couldn't be friends with a Slytherin. It just never happened. The lights in the hall flickered, clouds filling the enchanted sky as Merlin's magic spilled out into the environment. Merlin closed his eyes. He was just going to have to accept it. He could not be friends with Harry Potter. He was going to have to find a different way to protect the boy.

He remained in this trance-like state, unmoving as he though over his now destroyed plans until Draco pocked his in the shoulder with his wand.

"Wake up, Morynn," Draco muttered to him. "Dumbledore's about to speak."

Merlin glanced at him, slightly confused. "Why would I want to listen to that old man's speech?"

Draco raised a single eyebrow. "Old man? Isn't he younger than you?" Merlin rolled his eyes, trust Draco to make a fuss over something as small as that.

"Yes, but I at least am capable of thinking like a child. Now why do I want to listen to his speech?"

"Because father says the old man is completely barmy."

"I never listen to your father."

"Maybe not, but this should at least be interesting to listen to."

Merlin turned his eyes towards the old man who had now stood up in front of the Students.

"Welcome." Dumbledore spread his arms wide, as though he wanted to give them a hug. Merlin smirked at the thought, but if he was as strange as Draco's father had said, then that could very well have been what he was doing. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

And then he sat back down again.

Merlin stared. Draco's father had definitely been correct about that man. Merlin was beginning to regret having sent the man the Cup of Life. Beside him, Draco was hooting with laughter, both at Dumbledore's words and at Merlin's expression.

Merlin had sent Dumbledore the Cup of Life immediately after he had removed it from his vault. The same feeling which had told him to protect Harry had informed him that the Cup of Life was a necessary addition to this school year. Merlin was beginning to think that it had probably been a mistake. Dumbledore didn't act like he was capable of protecting the Philosophers Stone, let alone the Cup of Life along with it.

"You're not the only one who doesn't act their age, Morynn," Draco teased, pulling Merlin out of his thoughts.

Merlin raised an eyebrow at him. "No, that is not acting. That is just oddness."

Draco snickered at that and turned his attention to the feast that was now in front of them. Merlin looked across and recognised a few of his favourite dishes from back in Camelot. He allowed himself a small smile before leaning forward to help himself to some food.

* * *

When everyone had finished eating and even the desert dishes had disappeared, Dumbledore once again got to his feet.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few star-of-term notices to give you."

Dumbledore paused before continuing. "First-years should note that the forest in the grounds in forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older student would do well to remember that as well."

Merlin noticed the old headmaster eyeing two ginger haired twins. Weasleys Merlin assumed.

"I have also been asked by Mr Filch, the caretaker, to remind you that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

Merlin frowned. Mr Filch. There was something important about that. Mr Filch, Mrs Norris? His eyes widened, Aithusa! He'd completely forgotten about her. He looked around himself quickly, seeing no sign of her and almost missing the next part of the speech.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

Merlin was finding it hard to concentrate. Where had Aithusa gone? She couldn't have wandered far, but Merlin found himself struggling to remember when he had last seen her. It was after they had gotten off the train but definitely before they had reached the double doors leading into the great hall. Where had the dragon wandered off to?

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

That caught Merlin's attention. He gave the professor a very strange look, oblivious to how some of the students gave nervous laughs whilst others began murmuring to each other in confusion. Was the professor trying to tell everyone where he had hidden the Philosophers Stone? Wait, no. Merlin frowned. He needed a chance to think. What the professor had just said would sound like nonsense to anyone who did not know the school was hiding a powerful magic artefact, whilst at the same time, it served as a warning to any who might want to steal it. Merlin felt respect for Dumbledore rise grudgingly in his heart as he realised that maybe the old man was not quite as bird brained as he was trying to make people believe.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" On second thoughts, Dumbledore was a grinning Cabbage Head. The teacher flicked his wand and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself into words. "Everyone pick their favourite tune, and off we go!"

Merlin groaned as the other houses began to sing. He noticed that most of the other Slytherin students seemed to share his opinion and none of them joined in with the singing.

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and filled with air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot.

Merlin though it sounded awful. Everyone was singing in different tunes at different times. He just wanted the noise to stop. For the love of Camelot, why on earth had he come here? Eventually there were only two people left singing and Dumbledore was conducting them through the last lines of the song. Merlin gave a quite audible sigh of relief when the Great Hall was silent once more.

"Ah music," Dumbledore said, wiping tears from his eyes. Tears of joy or tears of pain, Merlin thought dryly. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Merlin turned to Draco, who looked as though he wanted to ask where they were going to be sleeping, but before he could do so, a fifth year called their attention.

"Okay First-years, follow me. I'll take you to the common room, and pay attention, I'm only going to do this once. You aren't dumb like the Hufflepuffs or thick headed like the Gryffindors."

The boy led them to the Slytherin common rooms, pointed out the dorms then walked off. Merlin went straight up to the dorms, wanting to get a good bed whilst he could, to find Aithusa curled up on a bed at the end of the room.

Merlin rolled his eyes as he poked Aithusa's side, getting no response. He picked her up and put her on the floor next to the bed. He quickly got changed and lying down. There would be plenty of time to interrogate her as to why she had vanished later. For now, he just wanted some sleep so he wouldn't be exhausted when he woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning.

* * *

**Okay, now before you all get annoyed by how out of character the Sorting Hat is, bear in mind how annoyed I was when I wrote this, I think I was taking my frustrations out on that poor tattered hat...**

**But Merlin has a reason! So don't get too annoyed.**

**Oh, I feel so bad, the only reason Merlin forgot about Aithusa is because I forgot about Aithusa. When I remembered I couldn't be bothered to go back and write her back into the chapter. **

**Now I have to figure out why she wasn't following Merlin.**

**Any ideas, please let me know.**

**And Please Please REVIEW**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys - I'm back**

**Another chapter**

**I noticed that a lot of you still didn't get the message that I let at the beginning of the last chapter cos some of you still haven't read chapter 4 (It doesn't really have much plot cos its early on but still)**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed - more still welcome**

**I went on an Engineering day on Wednesday today, it was so funny, we had a mini tour of a museum before we went and our tour guide actually got lost cos the elevator wasn't working and he couldn't find the stairs (we found them in about 5 minutes as soon as he admitted he was lost)**

**So yeah, cool week, almost updated on Thursday as celebration cos my English controlled assessment ended, but you don't really care about any of that and you probably just want to read the chapter, I doubt many of you read the authors notes anyway**

**and to the people who started reading the story cos my mum sent you a link to it on Facebook, I don't really care about that but I would like it if you didn't refer to me by name in the reviews, they can be read by anyone not just me. **

**so anyway, here's the chapter**

* * *

It turned out that Aithusa had been exploring the castle, looking in to how the place had changed since they had last been here all those years ago. It turned out that the room which Merlin had originally built to be a sort of test for the students had been forgotten over the years. Now the only ones who knew about it at all called it the Room of Requirement, and its original purpose had been completely changed.

Originally, he had built the room without telling the other founders, much like Salazar had done when he had come to Merlin and begged him to build the Chamber of Secrets. Merlin had been sceptical at first, but when the man had explained the true purpose of the room, he had been happy to create it. He even placed an enchantment on the Basilisk so there was no way that the thing would bother the students unless it was summoned, and even if others did speak Parseltongue, it would only listen to a descendent of Salazar and, of course, Merlin. The Room of Requirement had been a test much like the sorting hat. If a student managed to find their way in, then it would be almost like a mysterious fifth house, a house for people like Merlin, people who had the desire to protect. So that was how he had built the room. Only someone in dire need would be able to find it. It could not be found be someone who wished the school harm and would only show itself to people who needed its services in order to help the school. From what Aithusa had found out, there had been several people who had found the room over the centuries, but they had never told anyone. That combined with the fact that one of the headmasters a few generations back hadn't believed that the room had existed so the man had simply not told his successor about it. This meant that now one of the headmasters of Hogwarts was a member of the House of Emrys. Apparently, the old man had found it whilst in desperate need of a toilet.

Of course, that was not the only reason that Aithusa had disappeared. She had also ventured out into the forbidden forest to greet the centaurs which no doubt still lived there. She had also done the same thing with the Mer-People from the lake and had greeted the giant squid (the thing still didn't seem to understand anything that it was told). None of that had yielded any interesting information though. The centaurs on the other hand had had some very grave news. Someone was hunting the Unicorns. It was killing them and drinking their blood. At first, Merlin had been so angry that Aithusa had not thought that he might want to hear this earlier and had instead gone to sleep. But once he had calmed down sufficiently, he asked Aithusa why someone would possibly want to drink the blood of Unicorns when it would bring a curse upon them. Aithusa had then told him that the curse's potency had faded over the years to the point where it caused little more than a severe case of bad luck. She had then gone on to tell Merlin that by drinking Unicorn blood, as whoever this killer was had appeared to be doing, one could make themselves immortal or at least invulnerable for a short period of time. Merlin shuddered as he heard this. He hated his immortality. Why someone would go to such lengths to gain it was beyond him.

Merlin sighed. It didn't really matter that he had only found out about this now. In fact, Aithusa could have probably told him last night, and it wouldn't change when he would be able to do something about it. He was just going to have to wait for tonight before he would be able to investigate this matter more seriously.

As Merlin had woken up at nearly five in the morning, he had to wait a good two more hours before anyone came into the common room. Even then the few people he saw were bleary eyed, half asleep, and half muttering complaints about homework they apparently had not had the sense to complete over the holidays. Merlin spent the time sitting cross legged on one of the armchairs that was tucked into a corner of the common room with a book on his lap. He was reading up on the History of Magic. He knew half of it, but there was a surprising amount that was incorrect in the syllabus which Merlin was going to have to learn as it was unlikely he could just tell the teacher 'This is wrong. I know because I lived through it'. Sounding ridiculous would be the least of his problems if he did that. He might not be certain about how intelligent the headmaster was, but Merlin was pretty certain he would be able to tell the truth from a lie.

Another thing he was researching was the Philosophers Stone. He knew what the object was, and he doubted that the information would be necessary, but he felt he need to look it up. After all, there was someone drinking Unicorn's blood for their immortality, and he had been compelled by the old religion to send the Cup of Life to Professor Dumbledore. He had the feeling that someone in Hogwarts was after an immortality which would not bring a curse upon him – her – he had to think of the possibility that whoever it was would be female. Merlin snorted. He hated not knowing things. He hated it almost as much as he hated knowing of a terrible future and being unable to stop it. Usually the Old Religion made sure he knew everything to do with anything he might be getting involved in, but apparently this time it had seen no reason to do so. He wasn't sure how that should make him feel. Did it mean that Merlin's decision would be an important part of destiny, or did it mean that no matter what he did he would be unable to alter fate?

* * *

By the time Draco had wondered into the common room, it was almost eight, and Merlin knew that this meant that if he could get the boy to hurry, then he would be able to get into breakfast before there were too many people. He hated being in large crowds. He'd only just been able to manage last night. He'd probably skip the next feast.

Merlin decided that he wouldn't tell Draco about the Unicorns just yet. There was no point, and the poor kid was already worried enough about starting classes that day, even if Draco wasn't going to let anyone know that. Merlin stood up and almost fell straight back over again. He cursed quietly under his breath, he'd been sitting in the same position for so long that his legs had gone straight to sleep. He stood still for a moment, eyes closed so the other students wouldn't see them flash gold, as he let his magic return feeling to his legs. It didn't need a spell. Merlin had gotten so used to healing any injuries as soon as he attained them that it was near instinctual at this point. He opened his eyes and gingerly took a step forward. To his relief the spell had worked and he felt no more complains from his muscles.

Merlin walked up to Draco and put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

Draco jumped. "Merlin's beard," he exclaimed before he spotted Merlin and a pinkish tinge coloured his cheeks.

Merlin didn't have a beard, and Draco knew that well enough. It was just that everyone around him had used the curse and somewhere along the line Draco had started as well telling Merlin that 'if he didn't have a beard then he shouldn't care if people swore by it.' But that didn't mean that Draco liked to use it in front of Merlin.

"No beard, remember," Merlin said softly. Then he said in a louder voice, "well then, I've been up for hours, so how about some breakfast?"

Draco rolled his eyes at Merlin "You're always up early." He complained

"That may be so." Merlin agreed "But I've never had to wait for others to get up before I could eat. I'm starving!"

Draco glanced at Merlin, raising one eyebrow. Merlin supposed he was probably remembering that Merlin had always eaten meals with him when he woke up.

Merlin sighed. "Dobby liked me." He told Draco by way of explanation.

Draco frowned "But that means you were eating four meals a day."

"Yeah. So?"

"So why are you still as thin as a stick," Draco asked in obvious confusion.

Merlin snorted in amusement, he didn't really know the answer to that either. "Don't know, "he told Draco. "But I do know that if you don't go to breakfast now, I'm going to abandon you here."

Draco laughed at that, and the two boys walked out of the Slytherin common room and headed towards the Great Hall.

Draco, Merlin noticed, kept almost taking wrong turns, but as Draco had glared at him the one time he had tried to point it out, Merlin had decided to just ignore it. Draco did have a reason for being lost after all, the castle was huge and Draco didn't have the advantage of having built the place. Actually, now that he thought about it, he'd never told Draco that he had built Hogwarts. Huh. Ah well, it didn't really matter.

Once they reached the Great Hall, Merlin cast a scrutinising eye over the house tables, noticing that everyone was only sitting with their own houses. There were no social interactions between the different tables. It was sort of strange to see the student body split so perfectly into the four sections. Merlin frowned. It appeared that the teachers eating on their own was not the only barrier that had appeared in Hogwarts since the time of the founders. When he thought about it, Merlin realised that he probably should have realised this earlier. The Slytherin Prefect from the night before had not exactly been complimentary of the other houses. What had he said? Oh yeah, that Gryffindors were thick-headed, and that Hufflepuffs were dumb. There was definitely some animosities between the houses at Hogwarts, but what would happen if they ever went beyond simple dislike. That could prove to be disastrous.

Merlin shook his head to rid himself of the thoughts. He spent far too much time worrying about the future. If he was going to be in Hogwarts then he was going to try and at least act like a normal student, even if he had the responsibility of protecting Harry in the background. It would be almost like when he had been protecting – no don't think about him. Don't. Merlin frowned. Harry. He was going to have to find a way to apologise for calling him a prat. He had the feeling that the kid wouldn't believe him if Merlin told him that he hadn't actually meant it as an insult. Merlin blinked. Wait a sec. He was beginning to think too deeply again.

Stop that Merlin, he told himself and followed Draco over to the Slytherin table where he helped himself to five sausages and started eating, content to let Draco talk about, well, whatever he was talking about. Merlin wasn't really listening. He was too busy shovelling food into his mouth whilst trying to keep a discreet eye on the Gryffindor table to see when Harry came in for breakfast. Merlin finished quickly and sat in his chair, waiting for Draco to do so as well and wondering where Harry had gotten to. Maybe he had gotten lost?

He'd been sitting at the table for half an hour, and Draco had almost finished his food when Harry finally came into the hall. Merlin noticed that he was chatting to Ron. The two appeared to have become very close friends. Well, that just meant there was one more person for Merlin to win over. He could do that. He didn't think he'd actually insulted Ron at all, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Unless he took the rat thing personally. Yeah. Merlin groaned silently. Ron probably would take the rat thing personally.

Soon, Draco had finished his food, but even then, the two boys didn't head back to the common room. They had about another hour before classes started for the day anyway, so it didn't really matter. Merlin blinked. He'd heard something, wings? He doubted anyone else had as he knew that his senses were enhanced due to his bond with Aithusa. The sound was getting louder and Merlin turned his head to get a better look at where the sound was coming from.

All of a sudden there was a loud hooting. That of an owl. Merlin's mind went momentarily blank before he remembered that the wizards of today used owls to carry their post. Even as he thought this, the first owl made its way into the Great Hall. Merlin watched with one eyebrow raised, just as Gaius had always done, as hundreds of owls flew into the Hall. Most of them were carrying packages or letters, but there were a good few of them who had nothing at all. The owls flew down to the waiting students, and Merlin noticed as one snowy owl landed near Harry and stared at him before Harry gave the owl some hash brown. Merlin smirked. Harry was apparently uncomfortable at the stares of animals. Oh, he could think of so many things he could do to the boy. But no, that would have to wait until it would be taken without insult.

Merlin turned as Kilgharrah landed on the table in front of them. He carried both a package and a letter attached to his leg. Draco reached for them, and after he had removed them from the owl's leg, ignored Kilgharrah in favour of reading the letter. Merlin took pity on the bird, who looked as though he had half a mind to peck Draco for not paying him any attention. Merlin raised a hand and absentmindedly petted the eagle owl as he created some bird seed in his hand and fed Kilgharrah. The magic didn't make his eyes flare golden. It was such a small spell that it didn't really count as magic in Merlin's eyes.

"Hey Morynn." It appeared that Draco had finished reading his letter.

"Yeah Draco?" Merlin turned towards him, taking the letter that Draco was handing to him, but he didn't read it.

"Dad's ranting about pureblood stuff again," Draco explained as he saw that Merlin wasn't making a move to read the letter. Merlin nodded and Draco continued. "But he has sent us sweets, so I suppose there is some good in this."

Merlin grinned. "Sweets," He asked.

Draco nodded and opened the package. Two carefully wrapped bags fell out of it. Draco tossed one towards Merlin, and he caught it. He pocketed the treat and watched as Draco began to eat his own.

"Well, now the post has arrived we can go get ready for class," He said standing up and giving Kilgharrah one last pat on the head.

Draco stared at him for a moment before following his lead and standing as well. "Don't tell me you didn't actually know about the owls. I saw your face when they started coming in."

Merlin faked an offended expression. "You can't know that! I was just admiring the different types of owl."

Draco laughed as they walked out of the hall together. "Yeah right Morynn. You do know you're a terrible liar?"

Merlin huffed but gave up the argument. It was pointless anyway. Draco, despite being only eleven, was much better than he was when it came to winning arguments. Draco had even managed to win on the few occasions when he was actually wrong.

* * *

Their first class was Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Quirrell. Merlin had had a vague interest in the subject. That was, until he walked through the door of the classroom. The place reeked of garlic and Merlin found that the smell appeared to be making him queasy, though he couldn't think why that would be. It had never happened before. Maybe it was just because the smell was so strong. Looking around at the other students he saw that none of them were having any more of a violent reaction than a wrinkling of the nose.

Merlin sat next to Draco right in the back of the class and with a single look at Quirrell, decided that they would be better off teaching themselves the subject. It didn't help that the man looked as though he was completely terrified of the students, and his stutter was beginning to annoy Merlin. Quirrell began talking far too slowly and quietly for Merlin's liking. If he spoke, then the man would be sure to hear him. But before he could worry about it too much, the other Slytherins, who appeared to have reached the same conclusion that the class was pointless, were talking even louder than Quirrell. Merlin watched the man for any sign that this irritated him, but it seemed like the teacher had not even noticed that he had lost the attention of his entire class.

"What's the matter Morynn," Draco asked in a low voice

Merlin glanced across at him, surprised that Draco had actually noticed something was wrong with him. He liked to thinking that he had managed to cover up his distaste for the teacher quite well.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Oh come on Morynn. It wasn't that hard. You froze the instant we came into the classroom."

Merlin blinked. He hadn't thought that Draco had picked up on that. He hadn't even realised that he had done so. "It was because of the smell," he explained sheepishly.

"The smell," Draco repeated, obviously not believing him.

"Yes," Merlin growled loud enough for the girl in front of them to glance backwards at the noise. After she turned back Merlin continued. "It's just, you know, a little stronger for me, and it's already strong enough."

Draco snorted. "You've got that right," he replied. "Apparently, Quirrell got into a mess with a vampire a while back, so anywhere he spends any length of time in is saturated with the smell. Some people are even saying he has garlic in that stupid turban. The thing reeks just as much as this classroom."

Merlin chuckled. "Yeah. Oh man, it would be so funny to watch how Quirrell would deal with a vampire. He's scared enough now, and we're all human!"

"Right," Draco said dryly "A two thousand year old man is claiming to be human. That can't be a lie."

"Hey," Merlin said insulted. "I am human."

"Yeah whatever, now teach me this class." Draco glanced around as though checking no one was listening. "Dad would kill me if I failed anything."

The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion. The rest of the teachers were nowhere near as incompetent as Quirrell had been, but Draco seemed to prefer to be taught by Merlin, so the pair sat at the back of all their classes whispering to each other. In transfiguration professor McGonagall caught them at it, and demanded that Merlin pay attention to the class. She said that if he didn't, there was no way that he would be able to learn to transfigure the pins into needles let alone – she had paused there, obviously trying to think of a good enough example – Pincushions into hedgehogs. Merlin had replied by pointing his wand at the pin in front of him and with an unseen flash of golden eyes, turned it into a snake. McGonagall still couldn't figure out how he had done it. Apparently, he had managed to create mass out of nothing, but all he had done was used some of the air around the pin to help make up the structure of the animal. Needless to say, McGonagall had allowed Merlin to continue telling Draco what to do after that.

The last lesson of the day was different however, it was the first lesson we had with the Gryffindors. Potions with our house master Professor Snape. Professor Snape's classroom was in the dungeons, and Merlin found himself sitting right at the front. Due to an incident with Peeves which had only been resolved by using old magic to drive the poltergeist away, Merlin and Draco had arrived in the class last,and they were the only seats left. Luckily, even though they were late, they had managed to arrive in the class before Snape began his lecture.

Merlin couldn't decide on what he felt for Professor Snape. Even though the man was definitely prejudice against the Gryffindors, against any house but his own really, there was something within Merlin that told him that this man could be trusted. That Severus Snape was not a threat to the safety of Harry Potter. As Merlin watched Snape, he wondered why it was that, even though the Old Religion was telling him he could trust this man, he was also getting the feeling that Snape was not going to be a popular teacher, at least where non-Slytherin students were concerned. Merlin sighed. He was just going to have to reserve judgement on his opinion of the man, at least until he actually knew something about him.

Snape began to speak.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," Snape's voice was quiet, almost as if he was speaking in a whisper, but all the same it demanded respect, demanded that the student should listen, even if they had to strain their ears to do so. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with it shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses . . . I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

There was silence. Most likely the other students were intimidated by Snape's speech but Merlin found himself unable to hold back a grin. Snape seemed to be a melodramatic type, but Merlin didn't care. This class sounded as though it was going to be fun. Merlin had no doubts that it was going to be easy. After all, he had been the apprentice to a physician, and Potions was one of the few things that he had ever felt the need to ensure he did not fall behind the times in as it was one of the things that reminded him the most of Gaius, but that did not mean that it was not going to be fun. Snape sounded like his sort of teacher. He would most likely be strict, but Merlin did not mind, and as one of the favoured Slytherins, Merlin though that he would probably be able to do what he wanted when he had finished with his potions.

"Potter!" Merlin jumped. It may not have been his name, but Snape's voice was suddenly harsh and unyielding. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Merlin frowned, those ingredients . . . A sleeping potion? Yes that was it, the Draught of Living Death. He nodded to himself and glanced at Harry, who Merlin suddenly realised had no idea as to the answer. Actually, now that he thought about it, there was no way that any of the students should have been able to know the answer. Merlin had only known because he probably knew the subject better than Snape. Though, Merlin noticed that Hermione's hand was high in the air, and it looked as though it was trying to drag her out of her seat. He hid a smirk. He'd thought that she seemed like a Ravenclaw.

"I don't know sir." Harry's voice was soft and timid.

"Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything."

Merlin frowned. Snape was deliberately picking on Harry. He had no reason to do that. He glanced at Draco to ask him what he thought only to see that the boy was shaking with barely restrained laughter. Merlin elbowed him in the ribs hard. Draco had the grace to look guilty.

"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Merlin glared. There was no way that he was going to let Snape get away with bullying Harry. Harry was under his protection. Technically that should only apply to life or death situations, but Merlin liked to be thorough.

"Well personally I would look in any potion master's cupboard, but if you want where they appear naturally then that would be in the stomach of a goat."

Merlin looked into Snape's eyes evenly, refusing to flinch under the black eyes gaze.

"Very good Mr . . ."

"Emrys, Morynn Emrys."

"Ah. Lucius's ward." Merlin fought the urge to glare at being described in such a way. "Well then Mr. Emrys, ten points to Slytherin for having actually studied the text."

Merlin narrowed his eyes. That had not been the result he was going after. Now Harry would think that he had interrupted only for his own selfish reasons. He probably wouldn't even consider that Merlin had been trying to help.

Snape turned back to Harry. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Merlin blinked. It was a trick question. Monkshood and wolfsbane were the same plant, just two of the three different names that the two were known by. He briefly considered calling out to Snape again, but realised that it would only serve to make him look more full of himself. He was just going to have to wait for Snape to grow bored of tormenting Harry. There was a slight clattering, and Merlin turned his head slightly to locate the source of the noise. It was originating was Hermione. She had just stood up and still had her hand in the air. Merlin had the slight suspicion that she was standing on tip toe.

"I don't know," Harry repeated sounding glum. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"

Merlin winced. It was not the right thing to say. It would only serve to make Snape mad at the boy, and that would not be good.

"Sit down," Snape snapped at Hermione, sounding angry. Merlin sighed. He had been right. Harry was just aggravating the school teacher. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. As Mr. Emrys so rightfully told you, a Bezoar is taken from the stomach of a goat and will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant. Which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

Merlin joined in as the entire class quickly started rummaging for Parchment and ink, listening as Snape spoke over the noise. "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor house for your cheek, Potter."

As the lesson continued things did not start to look up for any of the Gryffindor students. Snape was criticising any and all mistakes they made whilst at the same time overlooking even the most obvious ones which were made by the Slytherins. Merlin, of course, made sure his potion was perfect. He had a sneaking suspicion that Snape might just try to insult his potion due to sticking up for Harry, but when the teacher passed, he could find nothing wrong with Merlin's potion and instead complimented Draco's stewing of his horned slugs, which Merlin found amusing as Draco was doing it all wrong.

At the end of the lesson, Merlin took his potion up the front of the class and put it on Snape's desk. The teacher looked at it for a moment, as though deciding if he was going to compliment Merlin because he was in Slytherin or refuse to accept his potion because he had stuck up for Harry. After a moment's pause he chose the former.

"Good work, Morynn. Ten points to Slytherin, keep it up."

Then he turned to Harry and gave the boy a lecture on everything he did wrong in his potion. Merlin winced in sympathy, but couldn't think of a way to help the boy without standing out for being a Slytherin who stood up for a Gryffindor. Merlin groaned inwardly. He was just as useless here as he had been sitting in the Crystal Cave.

* * *

It was when Merlin and Draco were sitting in the common room working on the homework which Professor Flitwick had set, that Merlin remembered what he had learned from Aithusa that morning.

"Draco."

"Yes Morynn?" Draco didn't look up, instead chewing the end of his quill as he puzzled over a particularly difficult question.

"What are you thinking of doing tonight?"

Draco looked up, recognising the tone in Merlin's voice from when he had decided to activate Lucius's dark mark to see what would happen when Draco had been there. "I don't know, sleeping I guess. What were you thinking of doing?"

"Making a visit to the Forbidden Forest to see who's killing the Unicorns."

Draco frowned. "Okay, one, I'm in, and two, when exactly were you going to tell me about this?"

Merlin grinned. "When you weren't terrified of the first day of classes."

Draco's face gained a pinkish tinge. "I was not terrified of classes thank you very much," he huffed indignantly.

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Sure you weren't. So you're coming?"

"Of course. Is Aithusa?"

_Aithusa?_

_Yes, Merlin._

_Do you want to come Unicorn hunter hunting?_

_. . . That makes no sense._

_Yes, it does._

_No, it doesn't, Merlin._

_Whatever. So you coming?_

_Of course, with Arthur gone, who's going to stop you from impaling yourself on a fallen branch?_

_Aithusa!_

_Right . . . sorry. No talking about Ar – Him, got it._

"Yep," Merlin said brightly, ignoring the dark knot of emotions that emerged whenever he thought about his old King. "So . . . Is charms really that confusing?"

"It is not!"

Merlin looked over Draco's shoulder at his homework and nodded wisely. "The spell you want there is Wingardium Leviosa."

Draco glared at him for half a minute before writing the answer down. "Thanks," he muttered.

"No problem," Merlin replied brightly. "The sooner you get that done the sooner we can go risk our lives in a highly unnecessary fashion."

"Don't say that," Draco groaned. "You sound like a Gryffindor!"


	7. Chapter 7

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Merlin had been sitting in the same chair that he had that morning as he waited for the common room to empty. Draco had long since gone upstairs having told Merlin to wake him up when it was time to go. Merlin watched as the last of the seventh years shot his some very confused looks before they too trooped to their dormitories to go to sleep.

_Aithusa?_

_Yes, Merlin._

_Is everyone asleep up in our dorms?_

_Not quite. Blaise Zabini appears to be awake. I think he might be studying._

_Studying! But it's only the first day of school. Why would he need to study?_

_From the way he is muttering, I would guess that he is angry at you being better than him in class._

_That's just stupid. Of course I'm going to be smarter than him. I'm over two thousand years old!_

_I know that. It's Blaise that doesn't._

_Well yeah. So does it look like he'll be going to sleep any time soon?_

_Not from where I'm sitting, he looks very determined._

_But it's like midnight, okay, not midnight, but almost!_

_I seem to remember you skipping entire nights of sleep to learn new spells_

_How can you remember that? For most of it you weren't even hatched and the rest you were off with Morgana._

_I knew it!_

_What? Wait . . . You tricked me!_

_Just a little bit Merlin_

_Oh, whatever_. Merlin paused for a moment. If Blaise wasn't going to sleep then, Merlin was either going to have to put this off for a night or go without Draco. No, Merlin winced. If he did that then he would never hear the end of it from Draco, and he didn't have the time to wait another night. For all Merlin knew whoever was attacking the Unicorns might be about to, well, Merlin couldn't really think what the person might do. But whatever it was couldn't be good. No. That meant that he would have to go tonight. So Merlin was just going to have to think of a way to get Draco out of the dorms without disturbing Blaise . . . Wait a sec –

_Aithusa, do you think you can do something to make Blaise go to sleep, a spell or something?_

Merlin felt as Aithusa tilted head to one side, considering his question.

_I can probably do something. Let me have a go._

There was silence and Merlin could feel warmth radiating towards him through the bond, not unlike whenever he used Old Magic.

_He's asleep_. There was a note of self-satisfaction in Aithusa's mind voice.

_That's great, do you think you can wake Draco up and get him down to the common room without disturbing anyone else?_

_Of course I can_. Aithusa sounded annoyed, as though she had taken offence at how Merlin had suggested she might not be able to do so.

A minute later Draco was opening the door that led into the Slytherin Common Room, Aithusa at his heel.

Merlin grinned. "Hey Draco. Are you ready to go?"

Draco snorted. "I should be the one asking you that question," he replied smugly.

Aithusa cut into the conversation before Merlin could answer. "Don't start arguing. We don't have the time. Let's just get going already."

Merlin nodded. "Cuddio ni rhag golwg." His eyes flashed gold as the trio vanished from the sight of any watcher.

"What was that," Draco hissed. As he was one of those that the spell had effected Draco would not have been able to tell what the spell had done.

"It was a spell of the Old Religion," Aithusa answered sharply, obviously annoyed that she even had to tell Draco this. "It means that we cannot be seem by unwanted eyes."

Draco grinned. "Cool. That'll come in handy."

"Don't get too excited Draco," Merlin warned, seeing where Draco's mischievous mind was leading him. "It only hides us from sight. We can still be heard" Merlin decided not to tell Draco that if he wanted to he would be able to make them impossible to hear as well.

Draco nodded, and his grin melted into a more serious expression. "Alright then, shouldn't we get going?"

In answer Merlin opened the door out of the Slytherin Common Room allowing the three to slip out. He led them through the halls in silence until Merlin pushed a door open and led them out towards the Forbidden Forest.

Draco shifted nervously as he saw the trees. "Scared," Merlin asked him with a teasing tone.

"You'd know all about being scared wouldn't you Merlin," Draco countered, causing Aithusa to roll her eyes in exasperation.

Merlin laughed it off, allowing his magic to fade as the trio ventured deeper into the forest. Instantly there was silence. Merlin frowned. It wasn't as though it had been noisy before. No, it was more like now there were no animal noises, no anything. The only sounds belonged to the breathing and footsteps of Draco, Aithusa, and himself. It wasn't that Merlin was afraid exactly, but there was certainly an eerie atmosphere to the forest, and Merlin did have to admit to himself that he wouldn't exactly be disappointed when they would leave.

Draco appeared to be having similar concerns as he spoke quietly to Merlin. "Don't you think it would be a good idea if you turned Aithusa back into a Dragon? Then, you know, we might not get attacked by whoever is attacking the Unicorns."

Merlin rolled his eyes, refusing to let Draco see that he was relieved that he now had a valid excuse to change Aithusa's form. If whoever the attacker was knew them Merlin knew that he would be unable to risk letting said person know about his magic.

"Fine," he told Draco. "But I'm going to have to keep you shrunk." The last part was addressed to Aithusa who nodded her consent. "Troi ei chefn ar ei ffurf wreiddiol. Dod yn y maint o lew."

Merlin's eyes glowed gold [omit comma] stronger than Draco had ever seen before, causing the boy to let out an involuntary gasp. Merlin laughed at the sound. It was the strongest magic that he had ever let the boy see him perform. Merlin hadn't wanted to risk letting Draco get any ideas. Aithusa grew till she was about the size of a full grown lion, trading her fur for scales and stretching the wings that grew from her back. She yawned, revealing razor sharp teeth and let out a small chuckle as she noticed Draco shuffle a little so he was further away from her.

"What's the matter Draco? You aren't scared of your namesake are you," she teased. Merlin rolled his eyes. For all the times when she had told them off for pointless chatter before, Aithusa was incredibly keen to do so herself.

"No." Draco sounded incredibly defensive and although he did move closer to Aithusa again, both she and Merlin noticed that the boy was not standing as close as he had done so before.

Merlin frowned. "Aithusa," he said hesitantly.

"Merlin." Aithusa's reply was soft. She sounded pleased. She was probably enjoying being back in her true form, even if she had been returned to the size of a new born.

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Draco sounded confused, and Merlin couldn't blame him. After all, the only reason Merlin could hear was his advanced hearing.

Merlin waved Draco's question off as Aithusa answered. "I can hear something." Her words were hesitant. "I'm not sure what though." She motioned to the left with a raised talon. "It's coming from that direction."

Merlin nodded and set off through the trees at a half run, leaving Draco behind. Aithusa ran next to him and soon he could distinguish what the noise actually was. It sounded like . . . some sort of slurping. Merlin paled, remembering that Aithusa had said that someone was hunting the Unicorns to drink their blood. He had assumed that they would bottle it to drink later or something. But this sounded as though the attacker was drinking the liquid directly from the wound. It caused an ache in Merlin's chest when he thought this. Unicorns were creatures of the Old Religion, one of the very few that were actually left. He couldn't let one die. He knew that the attacker had been killing the Unicorns, though he hadn't felt their power merging with his as it was so weak in comparison. He knew that now. Now that he knew what was happening he would feel it, and he would feel it just as hard as it had been when it had first began to happen.

He felt it. A jerk in his chest like a part of him had just died, a slight increase in his power. Merlin screamed. He was too late. His eyes turned a solid gold, burning away the age spell as it allowed him to run faster, to reach that . . . monster who could bear to do something like that to such an innocent creature.

He reached the clearing. The man was still leaning over the corpse of the Unicorn. He jumped back, trying to get away. Merlin was so furious he could not actually see the man's face. He was aware of how he must look, even if the rest of him looked completely human he had seen the reactions of enough people to know that when his eyes turned a solid gold he looked like a demon. Behind him, Aithusa burst out of the forest. She snarled, her eyes turned golden as well. Her magic roused by Merlin's as she stalked across the clearing to the man.

Merlin ignored the man as he began to plea with them, instead turning his attention to the dead Unicorn. He crouched down beside it, pressing his hand to the creature's neck as his fury ebbed away to nothing. Now all that Merlin felt was sorrow. Why did such an innocent creature have to die so that a man obsessed with dark magic should live?

"Cwsg brawd o hud a gadael eich marwolaeth yn dod â heddwch na allai ddod o hyd mewn bywyd i chi." It was not magic, for nothing could be done for the poor creature now, but Merlin found himself praying that the words would at least help the poor creature's soul to find peace and solace in death.

He turned his attention to the man. Now that he had calmed down, he was able to recognise his face. Merlin's eyes widened as he realised who the man was. It was Professor Quirrell. Merlin frowned. Knowing that his eyes were still golden from how flecks of the colour danced in the corners of his eyes, and as such, he watched Quirrell shrink away.

"He made me. The dark lord made me." The teacher was muttering the words over and over as he watched Merlin with terrified eyes.

Quirrell was working with Mouldyvort. Well, Merlin had to admit that he had not been expecting that. He had thought that the killer would be a death eater at the very least. Though now that Merlin knew Quirrell for one who practised dark magic. He could understand why he had had that reaction upon entering his classroom. Merlin had been reacting to the strong presence of dark magic, not to garlic. It was actually quite a good plan. If it had even managed to fool Merlin, it was doubtless that few others would notice the dark magic for what it was, and of those few there would be none who had not known of Quirrell's involvement in the dark arts beforehand.

Merlin clicked his tongue as he thought. He couldn't very well kill the teacher. If he did that now when no one else knew of his crimes, then Merlin would be the one prosecuted for what happened here tonight. No doubt the ministry of magic would claim that Quirrell had chanced upon a dark wizard drinking Unicorn blood and had been murdered for what he had witnessed.

"Peace Aithusa." He murmured, watching her back up and keeping an eye one her to ensure she did not try to attack the Professor again. "We cannot kill him now, he will be missed back at the school." Merlin sighed, tipping his head to one side slightly. It would probably work out better if the man did not remember him encounter. "Anghofiwch am y digwyddiadau sydd wedi digwydd heno" He saw Quirrell's eyes take on a golden sheen as the spell took effect.

Merlin nodded and then turned back the way he had come. Now that he was not being controlled by his emotions he had remembered that he had completely abandoned Draco in the Forbidden Forest. "Why are you just leaving him," Aithusa demanded.

Merlin looked up at her. "I only erased his memories of seeing us. If he does not awake to the scene as he left it then he will suspect that something more has happened, even if he does not remember it."

Aithusa growled low in her throat but no longer complained. Her silence an acknowledgement that Merlin was correct.

Merlin gave a small smile. "Good, now help me find Draco, we sort of forgot about him."

Aithusa blinked, obviously having only just remembered him as well. She nodded, "I will go ahead and find him before he gets into too much trouble. You should reactivate your age spell." With that, she ran ahead of him, bounding over the raised roots of the trees.

Merlin blinked, he had not even noticed that he had released the age spell "Gwneud fy nghorff fod o un ar ddeg mlwydd oed" he said softly, feeling as his body shrank back to his eleven year old self. Nodding slightly to himself, he jogged back to where Aithusa had found Draco and gave him a small apologetic smile.

"Sorry for running off." Merlin told Draco.

Draco waved his hand, dismissing the issue. "Doesn't matter. What happened?"

Merlin sighed. "We found the Unicorn, but we were too late. Quirrell had already killed it."

"Quirrell?" Draco sounded shocked.

Merlin gave a nod of confirmation. "Yeah." He glanced back towards where he knew the man would soon be waking up. "We'd best get back to the castle. We can't do much more here."

OOOOOOOOOO

Once they reached the common room, Merlin waved Draco off, telling him to head to the dorms saying that he would soon follow. Draco looked at him suspiciously but headed out of the common room anyway. Merlin turned to Aithusa, who he had already returned to the form of a cat.

"I need you to send a message to Dumbledore."

Aithusa nodded. "I take it you want me to tell him of the events which occurred in the Forest tonight."

Merlin nodded. "Don't tell him my name. Just say I'm the same person who send the sup of Life." Aithusa nodded. "Can you then go watch Quirrell? He should be back by then. You can tell Dumbledore you're going to do that if you want to."

Aithusa gave a small smile. "Very well, now you should be getting to bed Merlin, even you won't be able to survive a day of classes on no sleep."

Merlin rolled his eyes, too tired to argue. "Yeah, yeah. Stop acting like my mother. I'm older than you. Now, Rhowch Aithusa corff draig, ond nid ydynt yn effeithio ar ei maint." He grinned as Aithusa transformed into a dragon the same size as she was in her cat form. "That way you should be able to gain his attention easier."

Aithusa's nose twitched. "Yes, and a talking cat wouldn't have been enough. Now go get some sleep Merlin. I'll let you know how it went in the morning."

Merlin yawned and walked out of the common room towards the dormitory. Once he reached his bed he lay down and went straight to sleep.

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	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys, new chapter**

**warning - OCs **

**They may become more prominent characters later, I haven't decided really - they were there only cos I got bored**

**Let me know if you like them**

**Also I realised Merlin doesn't have anything to do in the mornings - I'm open to any ideas, or any pranks you want him to pull which may or may not get him the attention of the Weasley twins**

**and I'm just going to put this in, this story has less of everything than my other story, and its been up for three weeks longer, as such if I can only work on one of the stories at a time this one is more likely to go on hiatus, just a warning, its not going to happen any time soon**

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Merlin yawned. He knew that he didn't need as much sleep as other humans, but he did like to be able to sleep. It was a luxury he had grown far too used to. His body, on the other hand, didn't care that he'd been out half the night. As far as it was concerned, five was as good a time as any to wake up, and Merlin was not allowed to go back to sleep. As such, he was sitting in the Slytherin Common room again and was reading another history book. Unlike the one he had been reading the day before, this was not a book that would help him when it came to The History of Magic. This was a book on more modern events, and the most noticeable of these was the war against old Mouldyvort. The first thing he had noticed about the war was that, apparently, they knew even less about the event than Merlin did, and Merlin had been trying to ignore all the death and destruction that the man had been causing as he had known he could do nothing about it. The only reason he felt any need to know about it now was that he knew that Harry's destiny was tied to war, and as so, Harry's protector, Merlin, needed to know about the enemy.

In the end, Merlin just gave up. Having read three separate accounts of the war, he had decided that the best thing to do would be to try to scry for the past, but Merlin wasn't ready to do that yet. He could feel the two scrying crystals in the pocket of his uniform, but he hated having to use them. Better to wait until there was a real emergency. Until then, he would have to work as he had done back then, on luck and last minute preparations. Merlin snorted, thinking that he felt like the school boy he was pretending to be, a school boy who was very reluctant to study for his exams. He had also realised that it was unlikely that he would manage to sleep in until a more reasonable time in the morning no matter how tired he was. That meant that he was going to have to find something to do. He didn't want to wind up getting a reputation as a bookworm no matter how much he enjoyed reading.

Merlin hummed quietly to himself. It was still early, but it was almost seven o'clock now, and that meant that the early risers of the students would soon be coming into the common room. Merlin would have bet his magic that those seventh years from last night would be regretting their decision to try and out last him, and there was no way that they would be up first. Yet, Merlin would have lost his magic for no sooner had he thought this than the group pushed open the door and stopped dead upon seeing him.

"Hey, it's that kid from last night," the first of them said running a hand through his shaggy blonde hair.

"He probably didn't even go to sleep," a tall dark haired woman told him. She reminded Merlin of Morgana for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on because it was not just how she looked

The third boy had russet hair, and he walked up to Merlin. "Hi kid, did you remember to go to sleep last night?"

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Of course I did. Do you take me for an idiot?"

The boy laughed. "I wouldn't say that. It's more of a . . . we're worried you didn't get enough sleep."

"I thought Slytherins cared for no one but themselves."

"That isn't right," the woman cut in looking furious.

"Easy there Rach. The kid is a new member," the first boy spoke now, and then turned to Merlin. "Look, Morynn-"

"You know my name?"

The boy laughed. "Course we do. You're the Slytherin who stood up for Gryffindors. Do you have any idea how much some of the Death Eater wanabes hate you?

"No," Merlin replied bluntly, wishing that the trio would stop talking to him. He didn't need their distraction. He was busy thinking. Couldn't they see that? "Don't particularly care either."

The russet haired boy laughed. "I like you kid. You're what a proper Slytherin should be like."

"A proper Slytherin?"

"Yep." The girl – Rach – nodded in agreement. "You don't care about anyone and just do what you want. You will do anything to reach your goals."

"You've spoken to me for what? A minute? And you're already mapping out my personality."

She smiled craftily. "You're in Slytherin Morynn. You're surrounded by people who would happily invade your mind to find out your darkest secrets. I think I'm allowed to do a bit of observation."

"That's not what I meant," Merlin pointed out patiently. "I was simply wondering how you came to those conclusions."

The russet hair rolled his eyes. "Don't ask. It's a very dangerous topic."

Rach shot him a glare. "Shut up Flynn." She turned to Merlin. "I'm glad you asked. I can see you're already smarter than Flynn here ever was or ever will be."

Merlin laughed. If only she knew. "Thanks. Now how did you have me figured out like that?"

"Oh, that's simple."

"How?"

"You're Slytherin, and you're not mean. You have to be like that, or you'd have been put in Hufflepuff."

"Oh." Merlin hadn't quite expected it to be so simple.

"Oh?"

"I was just, you know, expecting it to be slightly more impressive."

Flynn and the unnamed boy began rapidly shaking their heads, mouthing words Merlin wasn't entirely sure an eleven year old should be able to recognise.

"More impressive!" Oh. Now Merlin saw his mistake. Rach appeared to be somewhat easy to anger. "What part of that wasn't impressive?!" She turned on the spot. "Flynn, Regis, we're leaving!"

Flynn and Regis shot him apologetic looks as they hurried to follow her out of the common room and down to breakfast.

Merlin sighed in relief. He'd been trying to get rid of them, and he'd finally managed it. Granted, they had not been talking to him for more than a few minutes, and they had been nice, but he had slightly more important things to do with his life right now. Like trying to sort out what to do about Harry hating him. Yeah, that could be a problem in the very near future. He turned his attention back to his book, but it was not even a moment before someone else was opening the door to the common room. Merlin looked up, ready to threaten whoever it was to remain silent before he realised who it was.

"Draco," He asked hesitantly. "Are you sleepwalking? It's like seven in the morning."

Draco glared at him. "Whatever, Merlin."

"Don't call me that in school."

"Doesn't matter. We're the only ones here. I can't even find Aithusa."

"She's following Quirrell, but you need to call me Morynn. If someone came in while you had said that –"

"Then they would have assumed it was a nickname based on your school results. Now aren't you hungry?"

Merlin shrugged. "Not really. I managed to befriend the Hogwarts House Elves."

"Well, I am," Draco complained. "Now let's go, or I'll be the one leaving you behind."

Merlin stood up, tucking his book under one arm and followed Draco to the Great Hall noticing that the boy had definitely been improving his sense of direction. He didn't get lost once.

When they reached the great hall, Merlin found himself distracted by Aithusa as she told him what had happened over the night. Apparently, Dumbledore had not been as surprised as they had thought that he would be by the sudden appearance of a speaking dragon. The old man had apparently also seen fit to allow Quirrell to keep his job as a Hogwarts teacher saying, 'he's not doing any harm where he is', and that 'it was too much trouble to try and dismiss a teacher part way through the school year anyway'. Merlin hissed at this, frustrated at the headmaster's lack of action upon what he considered to be a very important topic.

"What's going on?"

McGonagall's voice snapped him back to his own body to see that apparently Draco still couldn't leave Harry alone. Merlin groaned. He had a sneaking suspicion that the timing of his hiss was unlikely to have helped him win any favours with the Gryffindors.

Merlin grabbed Draco's arm.

"Come on Draco. Just give Neville back his Remembrall and let's go eat breakfast."

Draco snorted, tossing the orb at Neville and following Merlin to the Slytherin table. Merlin sat down and helped himself to a slice of chocolate cake. He wasn't sure why it was on the breakfast menu, but he'd seen stranger things in and out of Hogwarts, so he didn't spend very much time wondering over its presence.

"What was with that anyway," Merlin asked through a mouthful of the cake.

"I just don't like Potter," Draco told him, crossing his arms in front of him.

Merlin frowned, looking at Draco's empty plate. "I thought you said you were hungry," he asked.

Draco shrugged. "Okay, so I wasn't hungry."

"Then why did you wake up early?" To Merlin it was a very reasonable question, but Draco had raised an eyebrow and was looking at him like he was a madman.

"You do know that we have the first day of flying lessons today, right?

Merlin blanched. "That's today?" He was horrified. He hadn't realised. He had not yet thought of an excuse to give to the teacher.

Draco laughed at his expression. "Yes. I heard Madam Hooch is really hard to get excuses around. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you're going to handle this one." It was clear to Merlin from Draco's expression that he did not think that Merlin was going to be able to do anything. "Well, either that, or I'm going to get to see another exploding broomstick." Draco smirked at Merlin.

Merlin groaned, leaning backwards enough that he almost fell off the bench. "I'm doomed," he muttered under his breath hoping that no one would hear it.

"Who's doomed?" Blaise sat down next to Merlin, shooting him a strange look.

Draco snorted. "Morynn is. He couldn't fly a broom to save his life. That Potter kid is probably better than him."

Blaise laughed and shot Merlin a dirty look. Merlin raised an eyebrow remembering what Aithusa had said about how Blaise seemed to dislike how Merlin was better than him in class. Apparently, Blaise was going to be more than willing to take this out on Merlin.

Merlin stood up. "If you're just going to tease me then I'm out of here." He turned to walk out of the hall, fully intending to spend the last of his free time plotting a way to escape Madam Hooch's lesson. As he left the hall, he heard Draco recounting one of his flying stories, chuckling as the boy told Blaise that he had only plunged from the air to escape a helicopter filled with muggles. Merlin could have sworn that Draco had been flying away from Aithusa that time, although, he could not actually remember why.

OOOOOOO

Flying was the last lesson of the day, and Merlin walked next to Draco as they headed to the courtyard to meet Madam Hooch. Merlin had been through several ways in which he could escape the lesson in his head but had not managed to come up with anything convincing. He had decided that his best chance would be to just hope that she wouldn't mind too much if he just plain refused to get on a broomstick. But no matter how much he dared to hope it, he had a feeling he was going to be losing house points before the day was over.

Merlin stood next to Draco as they waited for Madam Hooch to arrive. Merlin watched as Harry and Ron arrived, the latter chatting happily whilst the former looked slightly ill. Merlin chuckled softly. He had a feeling as to what was causing Harry to worry so much, and he also knew just how unfounded the worry was. Harry had nothing to worry about and even less when his situation was compared to Merlin's.

Merlin sighed, eyeing the broomsticks which had been laid out on the ground, mentally complaining about how unfair his life was. Merlin looked up to see Hermione arrive. The girl looked over at Ron and Harry with, was that longing, in her eyes. Merlin raised an eyebrow, it seemed that the girl wanted to be friends with Harry. Not that he had a problem with that, but from what he had seen, the boy was the kind of person who judged people based on first impressions and did not bother to look any further. He was a lot like another prat that Merlin had known in that respect, only that person had not had the choice about being around Merlin. The royal prat had just had to accept Merlin as a friend and move on, not that he had actually given anyone else that same second chance.

Merlin took pity on the girl and walked over to her.

"Hi," he said softly, confident that only Hermione would hear him.

Hermione jumped and turned to regard him with distrusting eyes

"You know I'm not evil," Merlin told her with as much false cheer as he could muster.

"You're a Slytherin."

Merlin nodded, a wide grin spreading across his face. "And you're a Gryffindor. Do you want to state the obvious a bit more?"

Hermione glared at him through her bushy hair. "Shut up, Morynn."

"Ohh, you remembered my name. I'm honoured."

Her glare increased in intensity. "You Slytherin are all the same. You hate and insult anyone from the other houses." And with that she turned sharply away from Merlin and walked off towards Harry and Ron, standing next to them even though she did not actually speak.

Merlin raised an eyebrow as he watched her go. He inwardly bereted himself. He was an idiot. He'd already seen that people did not take kindly to being insulted so what had he chosen to do? He had chosen to go and do just that. He really did need to learn how to handle first impressions. Two thousand years in a crystal cave really had not helped him stop being rude to the people he wanted to befriend, even if that first one had been the Clotpole Merlin had referred to him as.

Merlin sighed, taking a step toward Hermione, meaning to apologise when Madam Hooch appeared in the courtyard.

"Good morning, class," she greeted them. Merlin couldn't help raising an eyebrow. The woman did know it was the afternoon right?

But Merlin seemed to be the only one who had noticed her mistake for she continued speaking. "Well, what are you all waiting for?" Her tone had become sharp and commanding. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Merlin did not move although the other students quickly fond brooms, excited murmurs passing between them. Madam Hooch noticed immediately.

"Why are you not participating in the class," she barked, an eyebrow raised just like Gaius. But unlike Gaius, Merlin could not actually explain to her why he could not take part in her lesson.

"Well . . . Um . . ."

The words had seemed so simple in Merlin's head. Why wouldn't they come out now that he actually needed them. What was it about Madam Hooch which made Merlin unable to speak to her?

Madam Hooch sighed and glared at him. "If you cannot give a good enough reason for not taking part then I am going to have to deduct house points Mr . . ."

"Emrys. Look, I really can't fly a broom."

Madam Hooch fixed him with a disbelieving stare. Behind her, Merlin was painfully aware of snickers from Ron and a devious smirk from Blaise.

"Well . . ." Merlin trailed off. He hated having to explain this but he could not think of a convincing lie. "I've never been able to fly brooms." He said softly, unsure as to whether Madam Hooch would be able to hear him.

Unfortunately she could. "Can't fly brooms?" Her tone was incredulous. "No matter how little control you have you should at least try. Even Longbottom is having a go." At that Merlin found his gaze turning towards the obviously terrified boy.

"It's not like that." His voice had dropped to little more than a whisper now.

"Then how is it like?" Now Madam Hooch sounded exasperated. She probably just wanted to get on with the lesson.

"My magic . . ." Merlin paused, not sure how best to phrase it. "Well it reacts . . . badly . . . when I ride broomsticks."

"So, you're a little traumatised due to some accidental magic? So what?" Ron wasn't the only one sniggering now and even some of the Slytherins were holding back laughter.

"Not accidental magic per say," Merlin muttered.

"Just go stand with the others Emrys, and a point from Slytherin for making such a fuss."

Merlin shrank back from her but walked up to the broomsticks to stand next to Draco. He elbowed his friend in the kidney when he realised that Draco had been one of the few Slytherins who had been openly laughing at him. Draco shrugged at him apologetically before turning his attention back to Madam Hooch.

"Now that that is taken care of, stick your hands over the brooms and say UP."

All around Merlin the students chorused the words, but very few people got it on their first try. Merlin noticed that Harry was one of them.

Merlin eyed his broomstick suspiciously. Even when he was not holding it he could feel the magic in it reacting to his presence. The broom felt to Merlin as though it might just explode before he even had the chance to touch it.

"Up," he muttered at the broom, knowing full well what was going to happen next. He shut his eyes to prevent anyone seeing the tell-tale sign of his magic flaring up out of control as it collided with the new magic.

The broom exploded, splinters flying out in all directions.

Merlin cracked open one of his eyelids to survey the damage. Thankfully it did not seem as though anyone had been injured, though there was not a person in the courtyard who wasn't staring at him in complete amazement. Even Draco was looking mildly impressed. After all, he could not properly remember the last incident due to it having occurred very early in his childhood.

"Well," Merlin said weakly. "I did tell you that Brooms and I were a bad idea."

This didn't really help however as everyone was still staring at him in shock. Although, Draco seemed to have gotten over it as he had now doubled over in an attempt to restrain his laughter.

"Mr Emrys!" So one other person appeared to have recovered. "Why on earth have you seen fit to damage school property in such a way!" Madam Hooch sounded completely outraged.

"It's not like I meant it professor," Merlin pointed out. It was true after all. He could not actually control a broomsticks apparent need to explode whenever he came into its close proximity.

"It's true," Draco told the professor. "It happened the first time when we were three. Broomsticks just don't like him professor." Madam Hooch turned her steely gaze towards Draco at his interruption. "He even has to use a specially made wand because he had the same problem with it."

Ron laughed at that. "What? Is ickle Emrys too special for a normal wand?" Ron's question should only have been audible to Harry, but due to his improved hearing Merlin could still hear the boy. He scowled but knew it was not a good idea to start an argument now.

Madam Hooch seemed to be trying to decide if Draco was telling her the truth. Merlin hoped that she would not think he was lying because that would mean that Draco would get into trouble as well. Finally their teacher spoke. "Mr Emrys . . ." Madam Hooch took a deep breath. "You have permission to miss your flying lessons until such a time that this problem has been resolved."

Merlin raised an eyebrow at that. He had not expected the woman to be so easy to convince, and even then, he had not even considered that she might allow him to avoid flying lessons altogether. Merlin decided not to question her however as he really did not want to risk her changing her mind.

"Thank you, Madam Hooch," he said quickly, backing away from the lesson. Merlin did not even notice as his hand brushed the end of Neville's broomstick lightly in his haste to escape.

He stood back, leaning against one of the walls of the courtyard as he watched the lesson continue. Apparently, Madam Hooch was not very strict with the students who actually wanted to participate in her lessons. Merlin also had a feeling that the embarrassing incident with the broomstick was going to be repeated many times over the coming year. If only because the teacher was likely to be adamant that the broomstick explosions were the fault of accidental magic.

Madam Hooch had been showing the students how to grip onto the broomsticks as Merlin had been thinking, and now she stood at the front of the group with a whistle in her hand.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," she told the group of students. "Keep your brooms steady. Rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle – three – two –"

Madam Hooch did not get the chance to blow her whistle however as the broomstick that Neville was riding suddenly began reacting to the brief stream of old magic that had attacked it when Merlin had unknowingly brushed against it. Fortunately, for Neville it did not do so by exploding as Merlin's had, but, instead, it began to rise into the air, leaving Neville with no way to control it.

Merlin watched in horror as he suddenly realised why the broom was rising so fast, in trying to save the boy he had reached out with a tendril of his own magic only to discover that the reason that the broom was acting that way was the two conflicting magics within it, one of which being unmistakably his own.

"Come back boy!" Madam Hooch seemed to be unable to realise that this was not the case of Neville being reckless. The boy literally had no control over what was happening. Merlin watched, his face pale at Neville's terror filled face, the rogue broom rising higher and higher with every passing second. The boy was at least twenty feet into the air when he looked over the side of his broomstick and gave a small whimper before losing his grip upon the broom and falling.

Merlin panicked. He could not let the boy become injured because of a mistake he made. Draco must have noticed his expression because the boy hurriedly looked around the group of students, as though to check that no one was watching Merlin.

His eyes glowed gold. "Meddalu ei gwymp," he whispered under his breath, feeling an intense relief as he felt his magic reach out to help the boy at his command.

But even then it was not enough. Neville still hit the ground with a loud thud, lying still and face down upon the grass. Even though the boy did not move at first, Merlin knew that the boy was alive. He just did not know the extent of his injuries. For these reasons, Merlin found himself running forwards. He was at the boy's side before anyone else, his display of unnatural speed went unnoticed in the face of Neville's accident. Merlin did not check for a pulse, instead sending his magic out into the boy's body. His eyes soft gleam near unnoticeable as Merlin breathed a sigh of relief.

Neville would be fine. His injuries were not severe, and certainly not life-threatening. The boy had a broken wrist which, considering the height which the boy had fallen from, even with Merlin's spell, was thankfully only a small injury.

Madam Hooch arrived quickly, bending over Neville as she too checked him for damage. She noticed the boy's broken wrist near instantly, muttering to herself as she pulled Neville to his feet.

Once Neville was standing she turned to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'. Come on, dear"

Madam Hooch led the crying boy out of the courtyard and to the hospital wing. Merlin noted that the students began talking amongst themselves the moment that she was out of earshot, but he did not mind. Merlin looked after the boy, worried despite knowing full well that the hospital wing would probably be able to put him right before the lesson was up, so he did not notice when Draco began causing trouble. It was not until he was knocked on the arm as Harry grabbed his broom that he noticed anything was wrong at all.

Merlin turned with horrified eyes as he saw Draco hovering in the air clutching what appeared to be Neville's Remembrall in his hand. Harry flew up to Draco's level with a grace which surprised Merlin.

"Give it here," Harry called to Draco. "Or I'll knock you off that broom!"

Merlin groaned as Draco sneered, knowing in that moment that Draco was not going to let this go. Harry shot forwards on his broom when Draco refused to return the small orb, and Merlin noticed that many of the Gryffindors began cheering and clapping as he did so. Merlin stared at the idiots incredulously. What were they thinking? This was not a game to be enjoyed. Draco might have been an experienced flyer, but as someone who had been raised by muggles, Merlin knew that Harry was in a very real danger of falling from the broom.

"No Crabbe, Goyle or Emrys up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called out.

Merlin raised an eyebrow. That was certainly true, but he could not quite understand why that should matter. After all, the Draco he knew was too proud to allow others to fight his battles for him, and from the look his friend was giving him now, there would be hell to pay if he tried to interfere.

"Catch it if you can, then," Draco shouted at Harry before tossing the Remembrall away.

Merlin groaned to himself. It seemed that Draco was adamant that they would not be befriending Harry Potter. If anything, Draco seemed to be trying to make an enemy out of the boy. Merlin's heart lurched as he realised that Harry was actually chasing after the thrown Remembrall. His mouth opening to say the words needed to return Harry safely to the ground when Harry caught it with an almost experienced ease before flying back down to the ground. Merlin breathed a sigh of relief. He was not sure how but Harry seemed to have managed to keep himself out of danger for now.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Merlin jumped. Professor McGonagall was racing across the ground towards the boy. He winced. Apparently, Harry was not out of danger just yet Professor McGonagall was as formidable as any dive on a broomstick.

"Never – in all my time at Hogwarts," Merlin found himself struggling to hold in laughter as he saw the multitude of emotions as they crossed her face, rendering her near speechless. "- How dare you – might have broken your neck –"

But, before she could get any further into her rant, she was interrupted.

"It wasn't his fault, Professor"

"Be quiet, Miss Patil –"

"But Malfoy –"

"That's enough, Mr Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."

Merlin saw a look of almost triumph pass over Draco's face. Although, it faded quickly as the boy noticed Merlin glaring at him. Harry was dragged away by Professor McGonagall, and Merlin winced at the boy's predicament.

When Madam Hooch finally returned, though Merlin noticed that she had done so without Neville, Merlin asked her if he could leave the lesson. After all, it was not as if he could do any learning here. Madam Hooch finally agreed to letting him go, but only once he had promised that he would spend the extra time in the library in order to work on some of his homework.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys. Sorry about this one being a bit short but thats just how it happened.**

**I'm also sorry about the sort of cliffhanger at the end.**

**but nevermind about that, enjoy the chapter**

**REVIEW**

* * *

Merlin was frustrated. Nothing was happening. It had been several weeks since the incident involving the Broomsticks, and Quirrell still had not made his move. Aithusa, despite having the natural patience of her kind, had also admitted that she rather disliked sitting around and waiting, especially when the only thing the teacher seemed to be doing was his nightly trip to the forbidden forest to attack the unicorns.

Well, it wasn't as though nothing at all was happening. It just had nothing to do with stopping Quirrell. Merlin had long since finished reading all the books he had actually brought with him to the school and had started foraging through the volumes hidden in the library. The modern books had held little to interest him, so he had found himself searching for those which were the most covered in dust, untouched sometimes since the days of the founders themselves. He'd even found Gaius's notes hidden away behind a bookshelf. He had wondered where they had gone to when he had noticed them missing a few decades ago.

As frustrated as he was, Merlin still found some amusement as Draco and Harry had started what appeared to be an all-out feud. Merlin was not sure what the initial cause of it had been, but he knew that whatever it was had resulted in Harry and Ron shooting Merlin vicious looks whenever he was with Draco, and Hermione was no longer talking to the duo. Merlin had to admit, he had been impressed when he had seen just how determined the girl was to not do so. She had been spending more and more time in the library, and Merlin had realised sadly that she had not really had anyone else that she could talk to. The few times when he had tried to initiate a conversation had ended with her asking him how he could 'bear the embarrassment of speaking with a muggle born'. Merlin had left her alone after that.

Halloween had started like any other day, and Merlin had been down in the Great Hall eating a large plate of bacon before he realised what day it was. The moment he had, from a grudging 'Happy Halloween' from Blaise, Merlin had gone cold. It was the anniversary of the day when Lancelot had given his life to close the veil. Normally, that would have kept him in a funk all day, and even so Merlin had half a mind to just skip the day's classes, but Draco had told him that he doubted he could survive the day without Merlin to explain what exactly the teachers actually meant. Merlin had realised something else was wrong during the last lesson of the day when he had noticed that Hermione was nowhere to be seen.

At the end of the lesson, Merlin had shaken off his depression and was about to march straight up to Ron and Harry and demand to know why Hermione wasn't with them, but before he could do so, his thoughts were interrupted.

_MERLIN!_

Merlin winced_. Geeze,__Aithusa. There's no need to yell.__I can here you just fine._

_Not important now,__Merlin._

_Then what is?_

_It's Quirrell._

Merlin froze, his heart beating wildly. He knew he shouldn't be happy, but that did not change the fact that he was. Finally, finally, something was going to happen. _What's going on_, he asked, all thoughts of Hermione temporarily forgotten.

_He's gotten his hands on a troll._

_How?_

_I don't know,__Merlin. He hasn't left the castle since I started watching him, but however he's done it,__the important thing here is that he has._

_You're right. What's he planning to do?_

_Now there I can help you.__I heard him talking to Riddle about it._

_Old Mouldyvort? Well then, go on._

_He's planning to release the troll in the dungeon at the Halloween Banquet._

_But that's now!_

_Yes,__Merlin. That's why it's urgent._

_Alright, I get your point,_ Merlin grumbled over the link.

_You need to go to the Banquet. The teachers will notice if you're not there. I can keep Quirrell away from the stone for a while. You should probably be able to get over here during the panic._

_Right. I'll see you in a bit then._

Merlin turned back to Draco. "Quirrell's going to make his move."

Draco's eyes widened. "What? When?" There was an element of panic to his voice.

"Tonight. Aithusa's going to hold him off until we can escape the Banquet, but it's going to be close."

Draco nodded slowly. "Alright, what are we going to do?"

Merlin paused and then shrugged. "Hadn't thought about it," he confessed. "But whatever we do, we're going to keep Quirrell away from the stone."

"That's obvious." Draco paused. "You aren't going to try to get me to make peace with Potter, are you?"

"Potter? What's with that," Merlin asked

Draco tilted his head sideways slightly. "Well." He stopped. "I guess I'm trying to tell him he's annoying, full of himself, and an utter Clotpole."

"Hey," Merlin pouted. "That's my word."

Draco grinned. "Don't care."

The pair set off towards the Great Hall. Merlin didn't notice that Draco had managed to make him forget all about Draco's feud with Harry.

* * *

As the feast continued, Merlin found himself looking around the hall. His magic was tensed completely. It knew, just like him, that something big was going to happen, and neither of them were enjoying the wait. Draco, on the other hand, seemed to have completely forgotten about what was going to happen, though Merlin did admit to himself that he had not actually told the boy anything more than Quirrell was going to make his move. Merlin took a sip of his pumpkin juice. Maybe Aithusa had been mistaken? After all, it did not seem like anything was going to happen. Merlin nodded to himself, turning to Draco to tell the boy he thought Aithusa had made a mistake when –

BANG!

The door of the Great Hall swung open with a crash. Quirrell ran into the hall. Heads turning as he fled in what appeared to be terror. Merlin couldn't see Aithusa. He assumed that meant she had taken up a vigil at the 3rd floor corridor.

"Troll – in the dungeons – though you ought to know."

Then the man fell forwards into what Merlin had to admit was a very convincing fake faint.

All hell broke loose. The students stood up, their dinners lying forgotten as the students struggled to get out of the Hall, several of them screaming at the top of their lungs.

Merlin remained still and silent, noticing that Draco was doing the same. Well, he thought to himself, it appeared that Draco was simply a very good actor.

"SILENCE!"

Professor Dumbledore's voice rang out over the Hall, bringing everyone to a stand-still.

"Prefects, lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately."

Merlin smiled, at least the crazy old man seemed to understand how to get a panicked crowd under control. "Cuddio ni rhag golwg." he looked over at Draco, hoping that he would get the message that they were now invisible. Thankfully, Draco did, and the pair sat still as the Great Hall emptied around them.

Merlin watched as the Gryffindors filed off, making sure that Harry was doing as he was told and not attempting to 'play the hero' as – he – often had. Thankfully, the boy was in line and Merlin felt a surge of relief mixed with guilt as he saw the boy's frightened expression. Merlin frowned. There was something wrong. Something missing. But what was it?

Merlin's eyes widened.

"Hermione."

The word dropped from his mouth as a horrified whisper. The girl had been missing all day. He had no way of knowing whether she was safe, or even if she knew about the troll at all. Draco seemed to have understood his thought as he looked over at Merlin completely horrified.

"We've got to find her," Merlin hissed to Draco.

"But she's only a muggle born," Draco replied, though Merlin could see that the boy did not really mean that. "Besides, she's one of Potter's friends."

Merlin glared at him. "I thought you'd gotten over your pureblood obsession. Hermione could be in danger. We have to help her."

With that, Merlin stood allowing his magic to expand from where he was standing, hoping that he would be able to find the girl quickly. Merlin located Hermione almost instantly and realised with a jolt of fright that the troll was headed straight for her.

He ran from the Great Hall. He wasn't going to let another person die. He had hated that he had not been able to save the unicorn, and he was not going to let the same fate befall Hermione. Draco ran behind him, having decided that Merlin was correct. Hermione's life mattered much more than some argument he had with someone that he was not even completely sure she was friends with.

Merlin skidded to a halt. They had arrived before the troll, but all of a sudden Merlin was not really sure about what to do.

Draco almost ran into him. "Why are you stopping," the boy hissed angrily.

Merlin pointed to the sign on the door in front of them. "Girl's Bathroom," he said by way of explanation.

Draco glared at him. "So?"

"Well, boys cant go into a girls bathroom."

Draco rolled his eyes. "So what are you going to do? Wait for the troll to eat her?"

"Good point." Merlin pushed open the door and walked slowly into the bathroom.

Hermione was standing in front of one of the sinks crying as the door swung open she spun around.

"Who is it," she asked.

Merlin blinked. What was she talking about? Wait. Merlin though about it for a bit. Then he realised that he was still using the invisibility spell. "Dadwneud sillafu."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Morynn," she asked, then she shook her head. "What are you doing in the girl's bathroom?"

Draco stepped into the room. "Not just Morynn you know." He turned to Merlin. "We need to hurry up. The troll will be here any minute."

Hermione stared at him for a moment. "Troll," she asked, then she rolled her eyes. "Oh, right, like you could expect me to fall for that."

Morynn grabbed her arm. "Is it that difficult to believe that we're trying to help you here?"

She looked at him. "You're in Slytherin. Slytherins never just 'help out'"

Draco sniggered. "Steriotype much?"

"Like you're one to talk," Hermione shot back.

Merlin stepped between the two who had somehow managed to wind up standing face to face and nearly yelling at each other. "Guys, guys," he said in what he hoped to be a soothing voice. "We do not have time for this, troll remember?" He sighed. "Not to mention that if we don't leave now, then we won't be able to help Aithusa."

"Your cat?" Hermione didn't sound like she believed him.

Merlin sighed. "Look, I'll explain later but we really need to get moving now."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine, but if this turns out to be some kind of trick . . ." She trailed off.

"What, can't you find a good enough threat," Draco sneered.

"Shut up, Draco," Merlin told him. "Now come on. If we don't hurry, then Quirrell will get the stone."

Merlin left the bathroom closely followed by Draco and a reluctant Hermione.


	10. Chapter 10

**IMPORTANT READ THIS AUTHORS NOTE!**

**okay guys I am very sorry but I'm putting this story on hiatus**

**before any of you flame me there is a reason I am doing this**

**see I am in year 11 at school mean I have my mocks coming up at the end of the Christmas holidays**

**for this reason I am unable to do any writing**

**and yes my other story is still getting updated but that is because I have backlog on that one and the chapters are very short**

**Please don't kill me**

**and if you aren't going to hold a grudge can you send me some cookies or something to help get me through me revision**

**Again please forgive me**

**Now enjoy the chapter**

* * *

Merlin, I can't hold him off much longer!

Just a bit more Aithusa. Draco and I had to take a detour.

Well, hurry up!

The dragon sounded very annoyed about being left alone to fight Quirrell, especially as she was not allowed to take her full sized form, and Merlin was not around to just enlarge her slightly. Dragon or not, even Aithusa had to admit that it was difficult to fight a huge three headed dog and a dark wizard when you were no bigger than an average house cat.

Merlin winced, glancing back ar Hermione and Draco. Draco, he knew, was used to being abandoned by now. He had accepted it. Draco knew that sometimes Merlin just had to use his advanced speed even if it meant that Draco got left behind. Hermione was a different matter. She did not know who Merlin was for a start, and even then, Merlin doubted that she would trust him fully. As she had reminded him, Merlin was in Slytherin.

Draco seemed to understand what Merlin was worrying about. "Just run," he told Merlin. "We'll catch up."

Merlin's eyes lingered on him for half a second before he turned away, his magic allowing his body to move at inhuman speeds. His advanced hearing allowed him to catch the sound of Hermione's exclamation of surprise as he fled to where Aithusa and Quirrell were waiting.

Merlin!

Aithusa's voice sounded pained, as though she had been injured. Merlin abandoned any attempt at appearing to be human. His eyes flashing gold as his magic allowed him to fly up the grand staircase, not having to wait for them to finish turning. It was a trick he had mastered recently. He had been tired of Draco teasing him for being stuck on the ground as no broom would allow him to fly upon it.

Merlin arrived on the third floor and flung the door open with a crash. He raced into the room, his eyes searching for what had happened. The first thing he spotted was that the three headed dog was eerily still. Merlin hoped it was only asleep but he did not have the time to check. Aithusa was lying on her side, her wing stretched out at a terribly angle beneath her, blood running down her side as her breath came in ragged gasps.

"Aithusa!" he called out to her aloud, horrified at the extent of her wounds.

He rushed over to her, his hand resting on her side as he muttered words of healing. He still had not managed to master them fully, and after two centuries of practise, he had decided to find out just why he could not use it. Turned out that his magic was heavily weighted towards combat magic. He could heal, but he would never be able to do so to the extent of a human who had dedicated their lives to the art.

"Merlin," Aithusa hissed after a few seconds. "You need to . . ." She trailed off, her words catching in her throat as she gave a small whimper of pain. "Quirrell's gone. I couldn't stop him."

Merlin hushed her quickly, seeing that it pained her to try to speak. He rubbed a hand softly up her spine, careful not to touch any area which might have been damaged by whatever Quirrell had done to her.

"Easy, Aithusa," he murmured. "I'll go stop him now. Just rest till I get back."

He stood then, casting a sad look down at Aithusa, reluctant to leave her so wounded. He turned away from her and looked over at the three headed dog. Now that he thought about it, he did not actually know if the thing was alive. He reached out his magic to the animal and winced. The dog was dead, but he couldn't tell why. Well, he could, but in order to do so, he would have to live through whatever had led the dog to death. The emptiness of death was already enough for Merlin. It wasn't as if he could do anything for the animal now.

Even as he thought this he found himself walking towards the animal, his magic drawing him closer. There was something else there. Something else that he had to notice. Merlin shivered. He hated being this close to dead creatures. He would have thought he would have gotten used to it with how he had caused many deaths over his life, seen friends and family wither and die. It had not affected him then, not even the death of the unicorn had affected him this badly, though that may have been because at the time, he had been consumed with anger. But this? This felt inherently wrong. Merlin's eyes widened slightly, realising why. The room was filled with dark magic, just as it had been where the unicorn had died. It was just as it always was whenever he was around Professor Quirrell, but this was much worse. The air was heavy with the scent of dark magic. He would not have been surprised if Draco were able to feel it when he arrived.

Yet still, his magic called him closer to the dead animal. Merlin knew he did not have the luxury of taking his time with this, but he felt unable to step toward the creature any faster. After all, the body was the source of the dark magic in the air.

When Merlin reached the creature he inhaled sharply in surprise. Trapped beneath one of the dog's outstretched legs was Professor Snape. The man appeared to be unconscious, though judging from the blood that was seeping out of one of his legs, he could wind up dead very soon if he did not receive the correct medical attention. Merlin sighed, Snape was not one of his favourite teachers, but he could not just leave the man to die. He didn't deserve that.

Merlin gingerly placed a hand on the dog's still warm skin, wincing as the animal shifted slightly. Merlin did not particularly want to climb over the creature, but it was blocking the path. If he attempted to fly with his emotions in the mess they were currently in, then he knew that he ran the risk of his magic destroying everything in the room.

Merlin climbed the dog's side slowly, jumping down once he reached the top. He checked Snape's pulse briefly, relieved to note that it was still strong. If Merlin could get the wound to stop bleeding, then the man would likely recover easily. He turned his attention to Snape's leg. The gash was deep, cutting down to the bone, but as far as Merlin could tell, the bone was not broken.

Merlin touched his hand softly to the wound, wincing as the unconscious man flinched under his touch. "Gwella," he said softly. The wound began to close over, and once it had stopped bleeding, Merlin withdrew his hand. Even though he knew that it had not been his magic that had done so, Merlin did not want to risk another incident like the one which had taken Uther Pendragon's life.

Once he was satisfied that Snape was going to be fine, Merlin climbed back over the dead dog, landing softly on the ground on the other side just as the door slammed open to reveal Draco and Hermione. Hermione's breath was coming in short pants, and even Draco looked to be slightly out of breath.

"Who are you?" Hermione demanded as soon as she had caught her breath.

"No time," Merlin told her simply, turning towards the trapdoor which the dog had been set to guard. He opened it and peered down. From what little he could make out, there seemed to be some kind of plant beneath it.

Merlin mentally ran it through the list of plants that he knew and cursed under his breath, Devils Snare. He didn't have his wand with him. He didn't normally need it, but he couldn't just use wandless magic in front Hermione. She would likely freak out, and Merlin was already struggling to think of an excuse to explain away what she had seen already or at least an explanation which wasn't 'I'm Merlin'.

Draco looked at him, recognising that there was something preventing Merlin from just jumping down. "What is it?" he asked.

"Devils Snare," he replied simply.

Draco frowned. "So?" he asked. "Just set it on fire or something."

Merlin gave him an exasperated look. "No can do, Draco. I don't have my wand with me."

Draco opened his mouth to point out that Merlin did not actually need a wand, but Merlin pointedly looked over at Hermione, silencing Draco's question.

Hermione seemed to have missed the silent exchange for now she spoke up. "I can do a fire spell you know."

Draco looked over at the girl in disbelief. "I thought you didn't trust us?" he asked suspiciously.

Hermione laughed at his expression. "I don't," she told him. When Draco opened his mouth to ask another question she held up her hand. "But if we need to get past Devils Snare to get the answers, then I guess I'll just have to help you out."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "I knew you should have been in Ravenclaw," he said. "You don't display any of the Gryffindor hard headedness."

Hermione gave Merlin a look which said quite plainly that she didn't approve of him insulting her house as she leaned out over the trap door.

"How can you see anything?" she asked, surprised.

Merlin rolled his eyes. "I thought we agreed that the questions were going to come later."

Hermione shrugged then pointed her wand down the opening. "Incendio" she said and a stream of white hot flames erupted from the tip of her wand, illuminating the darkness and burning the plant which lurked beneath. Hermione frowned. "I think it was supposed to act as a cushion Morynn. How are we going to get down now?"

Merlin rolled his eyes at her and gave her a shove. Hermione let out a loud shriek as she fell from the trapdoor into the room below. Merlin smirked at her from where he crouched. "Thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave," he taunted.

"Thought Slytherins were supposed to be evil!" she yelled back.

Draco laughed. "Guess you were both wrong then."

Merlin shook his head. "Never mind, we need to get going." He jumped down into the room where the Devils snare had been held. Draco followed close behind and shoot a mocking glance at Hermione for her short scream.

Merlin rolled his eyes and looked around, spotting a door at the end of the room he started walking towards it, Draco and Hermione following.

Merlin pushed the door open and came to an abrupt halt. The room was filled with – were those flying keys? Draco and Hermione followed him into the room.

"Wish Harry was here," Hermione commented shortly.

"What!" Draco all but shouted, completely outraged. "Why do you want him?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because he's amazing at flying. I know I can't do it, and broomsticks seem to explode around Morynn."

"I can fy!" Draco protested.

Merlin sighed. "True, but remember the owl incident."

Draco glared at him. "That was your fault."

Merlin shrugged. "Maybe, but flying in a crowd of birds is going to be very similar to flying with those keys."

Draco continued glaring, but he did not protest any further.

Hermione sighed. "I could always go wake up Harry. I'm sure he'd be happy to help. You know, if you explain to him whatever this great explanation is"

Draco stared at her with wide eyes. "We aren't going to tell Harry," he sounded outraged at the very idea.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "What? Is the explanation only good enough for a muggle born?"

Merlin sighed, it was obvious that he was not going to be able to make the pair stop arguing, so he resolved to just ignore the pair. He need to think. He doubted that Accio would work. It was too simple a spell to work under these circumstances. There would be wards against it.

He glanced across at Hermione who was still arguing with Draco, maybe she was distracted enough that he could risk it. Maybe he would get away with using old magic, at least a little bit.

"Yn dod i fy llaw," he whispered, eyes glowing golden as he concentrated on a brass, slightly over sized golden key with a broken wing.

Merlin frowned as the key landed in his hand. That was strange, it was quiet. He could have sworn –

"Merlin's beard! How did you do that?"

Hermione's exclamation destroyed his chain of thought. Merlin jumped, both at his name and the loud noise, almost losing his grip on the key he clutched in his hand.

"How did I do what?" he asked innocently, flashing Hermione a cocky grin, hoping to conceal how nervous he was truly feeling. Merlin noticed Draco standing behind her with a raised eyebrow, looking completely unimpressed.

"That magic! I didn't recognise the words, and anyway, you don't even have your wand!"

Merlin winced, that was true. "Look, I told you that I'll explain later." He really needed to think of a good excuse for this, at this rate the only this he would be able to do was going to be just to tell her his identity. He could always use that he had told her he was descended from Merlin, but that would probably raise even more questions about her.

Merlin walked with the key over to the door, pushed the key into the lock and opening the door. He stepped through to see that Quirrell was still occupied. He smirked, it was probably a good thing they had caught up to him here. Merlin had never been very good at playing chess and he didn't really want to have to risk finding out how good Draco and Hermione were. Though if he knew anything about his friend, Draco would probably be able to beat the game from tactics and sheer Slytherin cunning.

He glanced back at Hermione and Draco and sighed. He couldn't exactly risk Quirrell finding out that three students had thwarted his plans, especially as Merlin suspected that even after tonight's incident,Dumbledore would still keep him on as a teacher. It was frustrating, but he was just going to have to trust Hermione for now.

"Yn datgelu fy ffurflen gwir." His eyes glowed gold, not a flash like it normally was, but a true, solid gold. The gold his eyes glowed when he was angry, when he needed to fight. Merlin felt his form changing, aging, till he stood in the room looking just as he had looked back in the days of Camelot.

Merlin looked back at Hermione, flashing her a cheeky grin and laughing softly as Draco slapped a hand over the girl's mouth to prevent her from asking any questions. In an unspoken agreement with Merlin, Draco dragged Hermione off to the side of the hall where they could watch what would happen without being spotted by Quirrell. Merlin looked at Quirrell's back, contemplating how to approach him as he slowly got his emotions under control, his golden eyes returning to their natural colour.

Merlin shrugged to himself, might as well. "Good evening, Quirrell." He spoke out calmly, watching with some amusement as the man spun around on the spot to see who it was who had greeted him. Merlin raised a hand and smiled. It wasn't as if Quirrell could afford to attack him. The man could not move because it would be counted as a foul move and cost him the game.

"Who are you?" Quirrell's voice held no trace of its usual stutter. It was just as Merlin had suspected. The man had been faking just about everything.

Merlin smiled. "I see you were lying about your stutter Quirrell. Were you lying about the vampires too? Was it a little visit from Tom Riddle that got you to return to Hogwarts?"

Quirrell stared at him. "A visit from who?" he finally asked.

Merlin sighed. "You see," he began. "this is why you shouldn't use so many names Tom. People get confused."

Quirrell's eyes narrowed. "Who are you talking to?" he asked.

Merlin gave an innocent grin. "Who, me? Oh, I guess you would call him the Dark Lord. He is on the back of your head, right?"

Quirrell pursed his lips. "Who are you to know of the Dark Lord?"

Merlin laughed. Then, he stared at Quirrell completely serious. "My name is Merlin Emrys, and yes, I'm THAT Merlin."

Quirrell scoffed. "As if. Merlin died centuries ago."

"To be precise, I was declared dead 1728 years ago. Though I went missing about 1800 years ago. I think they kept hoping for me to come back."

Quirrell outright laughed at that, and Merlin could see Hermione rolling her eyes in the shadows, no doubt not believing him either.

Merlin nodded. "Alright then, how should I prove it?"

Quirrell sneered. "If you are Merlin. Then as a pureblood, you should understand that the Dark Lord must rise again."

Merlin tilted his head to one side. "But I don't believe that, besides, I'm a half blood." Merlin grinned as he watched Quirrell's reaction, imagining Hermione's as he did so.

"In that case, you are most certainly not Merlin," Quirrell told him and turned back to the chess game to continue.

Merlin sighed. It was obvious that he was going to be unable to keep a conversation going whilst Quirrell was occupied with the game.

"STOP THE CHESS GAME IN THE NAME OF EMRYS!" His eyes glinted gold.

The two kings turned towards him, Quirrell protesting heavily as they abandoned the game. They bowed to him, presenting their swords, but Merlin ignored them.

"I am Merlin Emrys. I was born over two thousand years ago. I am the last druid, the last dragonlord. My destiny was to protect Arthur Pendragon" Merlin found himself choking on his old kings name. "I failed when he refused my magic. I have a new destiny. Harry Potter is under my protection."

Quirrell's eyes were wide. Good, Merlin thought. He's starting to believe me. "What does that have to do with what I'm doing?" the man spluttered eventually.

Merlin smiled, but it was not a smile of happiness as it had been so many times before. This was a grim smile, one which spoke of the consequences of crossing him. "Riddle is a danger to Harry Potter. One that I will destroy. I stopped the killing curse when he tried to kill Harry, and I will stop him from killing now. You were meant to die that day Riddle. You survived somehow, but I will see to it that you die." His smile widened. "Your destiny has been decided Riddle. It is only a matter of time." He paused, hating the way that Quirrell was staring at him, those fear filled eyes. He didn't want to be called a monster. "Leave now Quirrell, and I shall let you live."

Merlin watched as the man fled, tripping over his robes in his effort to leave before Merlin decided to kill him. As a disciple of the Dark Lord, the man did not understand mercy.

Merlin turned to Hermione and raised an eyebrow. "So is that a good enough explanation for you?" he asked.

Hermione was speechless. Her mouth was opening and closing like a fish. Well, Merlin thought, at least she actually believes me. The other reaction would have been more annoying.

Draco spoke for her. "You broke her brain," he said simply, shrugging like it wasn't important.

For a moment the pair attempted to pretend that Hermione's face wasn't funny, but they gave up soon enough. The two broke down into laughter, giggling uncontrollably until she found her voice.

"You're Merlin?" Her voice was quiet, awed.

Merlin nodded. "Yup, that's me. Don't tell anyone, kay?"

She nodded slowly, then she frowned. "Why doesn't Draco care, uh, sir?"

Merlin sighed. "Draco's known who I was since he was three. The whole OMG, he's Merlin thing kind of wore off in about a week."

Draco nodded. "Plus, I was three. I didn't really know who Merlin was. I figured that out later. Wasn't so much of a shock then. The OMG bit was the kid who was essentially my brother not actually having the name I thought was his. That and he was just a little bit older than I thought he was."

Hermione stared at Merlin. "And you don't mind that – at all."

Merlin shrugged. "Nope. I always hated the worship thing that came with being Merlin. Why do you think I always give people fake names?" He looked at her, noticing that the shock was beginning to wear off. "Now, as much as I love this conversation, I'm going to go get the Philosopher's Stone now."

"Wait, What?!" Hermione yelled, eyes now wide for a completely different reason. "But you said you were going to protect it."

Merlin shook his head. "No, I didn't. I said I was going to Protect Harry. To do that, I need to stop old Riddle from returning from the dead. He needs the Philosophers Stone to do that."

Hermione nodded wildly. "Exactly – so aren't you going to help Professor Dumbledore protect it?"

Merlin sighed. "As much as I would love to do that Hermione, it would be a lot easier to just destroy the thing. Then Riddle can't get it no matter how hard he tries."

"But can't you enchant it, or hide it, or . . . or something that isn't destroying it?"

"Enchantments can be broken. Hidden objects found. Something that no longer exists cannot be used."

Merlin stared at Draco. "I think that is the smartest thing I have ever heard you say," he told his friend.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Thanks," he said sarcastically.

Merlin grinned. "So are you guys going to come with or stay here?"

Draco glared at him. "Like I'm going to let you go anywhere without me."

Merlin shrugged. "Well, no offence Draco, but you haven't exactly done anything."

Draco spluttered. "I have to. I've, err . . . given verbal encouragement."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "I didn't hear anything"

"Woo Hoo, go Merlin. You can do it," Draco deadpanned, causing Merlin to laugh.

Merlin waved Draco off and walked over to the door. He pushed it open slowly, wary of another trap but there was nothing. He pushed the door open completely and looked into the room.

For the most part the room was empty. The only thing in the room was a small stone in the centre. Merlin picked it up and ran his fingers over the surface. He frowned. "Well, that was easier than I thought it would be," he muttered. He sighed. "DESTROY THIS MAGICAL ARTIFACT" he said softly, his eyes burning.

The stone which had been red before faded to a dull grey. Merlin nodded and dropped it on the ground. He turned back to Hermione and Draco who were still standing in the doorway.

"What are you standing there for?" he asked. "Come on, we're done here. Let's go."


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry that this is slightly late, I did mean to give this to you yesterday but I got ever so slightly distracted**

**On the plus side, this means that my hiatus is over (woo hoo) **

**any way, enjoy the chapter**

**Thank you for being so understanding about the hiatus**

**sorry again for it being late **

**(OH, and consultingsorcererof221B, thanks for all the reviews, they provided most of the motivation I needed to write this)**

**REVIEW**

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To Merlin's annoyance, very little had been done about Quirrell's attempt to steal the stone, even after he had sent Aithusa to the old man to explain what had happened. Merlin was beginning to think that the old man was not even trying to protect his students. Honestly, the fool had employed a man who was possessed by Tom Riddle, and even when faced with absolute proof of this, he had done very little – nothing – to rectify the matter.

This meant that, like always, Merlin had to fix all of the dangerous problems. He felt like he was back in Camelot sometimes, only he didn't have Gaius to tell him off for sleeping in. No, he had a noisy group of house mates for that. Merlin was also finding it hard to process that there was someone else who knew his true identity. It was nerve-racking to say the least, especially as when they left the 3rd floor corridor, Hermione had seemed to fully process what she had just been told and promptly decided the best way to cope with the news was to freak out even more.

It had taken them a long time to calm Hermione down about who Merlin was. Although she had agreed not to tell anyone, her tendency to drop everything (both conversations and whatever happened to be in her hands) whenever Merlin walked past her had caused many of the Gryffindors to believe that he had jinxed her. Merlin had even gotten some encouragement from his fellow Slytherins who seemed to believe the rumours as well.

Normally, Merlin would have worried about this a lot more, but he could find very little reason to do so. The Christmas holidays were coming up, and it was their last day in school today which would allow him to just avoid Hermione for a while. He was hoping that when he got back then Hermione would have gotten over her hero worship.

Merlin yawned and stretched in his seat in the Great Hall that morning. Draco smirked at him.

"Tired?" he asked mockingly.

Merlin shrugged. "Maybe a little."

Draco rolled his eyes. "That's what you get for sleeping so little," he said matter of factly

Merlin eyed Draco. "I don't actually need that much sleep," he told his friend.

Draco shrugged. "Well obviously you do. If you fall asleep in class, then I'm going to fail, and I will find a way to make sure that father knows that is all your fault."

Merlin leant forwards against the Slytherin table. "I don't need that much sleep. I'm not like a normal human. The problem comes from the fact that I haven't actually slept since the incident with Quirrell."

Draco blanched. "But that was over a month ago!" he said, horrified. "How are you still awake?"

Merlin gave him a tired grin. "Told ya, I'm special."

Draco nodded seriously. "Yes, I agree."

Merlin frowned. "Huh?" He wasn't used to Draco agreeing with him so easily.

Draco continued, his face still completely blank. "You are very special in the head."

Merlin decided the best form of retaliation was to throw some – well, he thought it might be mashed potato - at his friend. Draco ducked quickly, so the food managed to hit a Ravenclaw seventh year on the back of the head.

Draco's eyes widened in horror as the seventh year turned around. Draco jumped to his feet and grabbed Merlin by the arm, ignoring his protests, and dragged his friend from the room trying to ignore the frosty looks they were getting from the seventh year and his friends.

0000000000

The first lesson that day was potions, and as Merlin and Draco filed into the dungeons, Merlin spotted Hermione chatting with Harry and Ron.

Draco nudged him. "You've got a way to start a friendship with Potter now."

Merlin stared at him blankly. "Huh?" was all he managed. Honestly, he wasn't at full processing power, and he really did need to get some sleep.

Draco sighed. "You know, you made peace with Hermione, so you could get her to introduce you to her friends." He looked at Merlin. "Harry and Ron," he added when he realised that Merlin was still confused.

Merlin sighed. "It won't be that easy Draco. They probably agree with the rest of the year and think I'm brainwashing her or something."

Draco frowned. "Then prove you're not."

"And how do you suppose I should go about doing that Draco?" Merlin asked pointedly, giving his friend a half-hearted glare.

"Tell them who you are," Draco said with a shrug.

Merlin stared at Draco in horror. "There is no way I'm doing that!" he said quickly. "Everything could go wrong in seconds. They would never believe me, and even if they did, then I would be accused of brainwashing 'the boy who lived' and besides," he paused in the stream of protests for a moment, "even if he did believe me, he would never accept me."

Draco blinked. "Why would you think that?" he asked. "Hermione and I accepted you."

Merlin stared at him for a moment before turning away. He didn't answer. He had never told Draco about what had happened when he had told Arthur about his magic. He did not want to feel that betrayal from his other half again. He could not bear it.

"I just don't want him to treat me like some kind of hero," he said finally when he realised that Draco was waiting for an answer.

Draco shrugged. "He's the boy who lived, if anyone understands that concept it would be him."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "I thought you hated Harry."

Draco nodded. "I do. I just think you're being a paranoid idiot."

Merlin gave him a half-hearted glare. "Thanks," he muttered

"Emrys, Malfoy. I expect students of my house to pay attention in class."

Merlin winced and flashed a sheepish grin at Draco before returning his attention to his potion.

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

When the day was over, Merlin and Draco went up to their dormitory and started packing their things. When they were done, the two boys sat on the ends of their bed awkwardly. Aithusa jumped up onto Merlin's lap.

"So, we're going back to the mansion for the holidays?" Aithusa said quietly.

Merlin nodded. "Yup," he said and then frowned. "Why wouldn't we?"

Aithusa gave him an annoyed look. "Because you're supposed to be protecting Harry."

Draco snorted. "Come on. Potter's an idiot but he'll be able to survive until the end of the holidays," Draco said before pausing. "Then again, maybe he won't."

Merlin froze. He had not actually thought of any of that. He had just been looking forward to spending his holiday away from all the noisy people. "Oh," he muttered. "I didn't think of that. Maybe I should –"

"No." Draco's voice was completely stern. "You are not going to send me home to my father all alone. To do so would be to attempt to guarantee I become a Death Eater. You wouldn't want that now would you?"

"It would not really matter. Merlin's sole concern should be Harry Potter. He should not even be in this house. If it were not for you Draco, this entire problem would have been a lot easier."

Merlin winced. "That's harsh, Aithusa."

Aithusa shrugged. "I am a dragon. We speak the truth."

"The last dragon who 'spoke the truth' told me to kill anyone who might become an enemy."

Draco blanched. "Oh, please don't say that you're going to ask Merlin to kill me, Aithusa."

Aithusa laughed. "I wouldn't do that. I'm just saying that everything would have been a lot easier if you two had never become friends."

"Thanks," Draco said dryly.

The two continued arguing, but Merlin was no longer listening. He was thinking about what Aithusa had said. It was true he realised. If he had never decided to enter the Malfoy household, then he would have probably been able to befriend Harry at the beginning of the year. Half the reason Harry hated him now was because he was friends with Draco. Maybe it would have been better if he had never done so. Maybe it would be a good idea to cut off his friendship with Draco before it was too late.

"Morynn! Draco!"

Merlin jumped and spun around. Blaise was standing in the doorway glaring at them.

"What do you want?" he said tiredly.

"You're going to be late for the train."

Merlin eyed the boy suspiciously. "Why are you helping us. I thought you hated us."

Blaise grinned at him nastily. "I do hate you which is why I'm telling you that you need to go. I'm staying, and I don't want to see your faces around here any longer."

Merlin rolled his eyes at Blaise's back as the boy turned to leave. He grinned at Draco and cast two spells on their trunks with a flash of his eyes.

"Come on guys. As much as I hate Blaise, he's right. We don't want to be late for the train."

As Draco turned to leave with Aithusa walking alongside him, Merlin allowed his false grin to slip from his face. He enjoyed spending time around Draco. He didn't really want to break off their friendship. But if it was the only thing that would allow him to protect Harry, then it would be selfish not to do so. Merlin shook his head. It didn't matter. He was friends with Draco now, and he was not going to stop. He had sacrificed everything to protect him, and Merlin did not have the heart to do so again. Harry was just going to have to accept that Draco was not as evil as he thought he was. That would mean that Merlin was going to have to get Draco to stop acting mean towards Harry. Well, he had all Christmas holidays to convince Draco.


	12. Chapter 12

**You people should be very grateful**

**I stayed up till 3 in the morning to get this done in time for today**

***sulks***

**I'm completely exhausted now**

***yawns***

**ah well**

**here's the chapter for you**

**remember to review**

**(because I will need the motivation to write the next chapter)**

* * *

Merlin yawned. It was all well and good spending the Christmas holidays with Draco. For the most part, it had been very fun, but Merlin still could not understand why anyone could possible want to go to one of Lucius's Christmas parties. The things were absurdly popular for such boring events, and when Merlin had tried to ask Narcissa what was so good about them, she had told him that he would understand when he was older. It was ridiculous. Merlin was much older than Narcissa. He should be the one telling her that she was too young to understand.

Draco didn't seem to understand his pain either. He had outright laughed the moment that Merlin had started complaining. Merlin grit his teeth. Let the little prat go play with his pureblood friends. Merlin had more interesting things to play around with, even if those more interesting things were sitting in a corner and mentally cursing the Malfoy family. Merlin frowned. That was actually an interesting idea, Maybe he could cause some . . . nasty . . . things to happen to the guests and get the party shut down.

Merlin allowed himself a small, only slightly creepy, smile and slowly stood up and stretched. He pursed his lips for a moment before;

_Aithusa?_

_What is it, Merlin?_

_Do you have any ideas for ruining this stupid party?_

_NO!_

Merlin winced. _Yikes, Aithusa. What's that about?_

_Just because you don't like something doesn't mean someone else doesn't._

Merlin paused, thinking over Aithusa's words.

_Aithusa?_

_What?_ Aithusa's mental voice sounded slightly irritated.

_Are you sticking up for Lucius?_

_. . . Maybe_

_The guests are pampering you aren't they?_

_. . . Maybe_

Merlin rolled his eyes._ Fine, but you'd better have an idea of something else that I could do._

Aithusa hummed softly into Merlin's mind.

_Maybe you could go and see if you can get into Lucius' study while he is out._

_. . . You know, Aithusa. That's actually a good idea._

_It's not a good idea. It's a brilliant idea. I came up with it._

Merlin snorted. _Oh, shut up, Aithusa_

_As you wish oh mighty, Dragonlord._

Merlin rolled his eyes. _Seriously?_

_Yes. Now get going. You're distracting me._

_Fine._

Merlin looked to the door of the secluded room he had found himself in. Now that he was actually paying attention to his surroundings, he realised that he actually did not know where he was. He sighed. Ah well, he thought to himself, best figure that out.

Sticking his head around the door, Merlin gave the outside corridor a surveying look. Then he glared. It wasn't that he did not know his way around the Malfoy manor, he had lived there for eleven years after all, but it did not help him that the entire manor looked entirely the same. There weren't even any furnishings on the walls for him to navigate himself by.

No furnishings on the walls? There was something important there.

Merlin bit his lip, deep in thought as he allowed his eyes to drift to where a lone house elf was running up the corridor.

His eyes widened. Of course, he was in the servants courters.

He allowed himself a quick snort. It would be here that he had ended up. Trust him to hide in the servant's area when he was feeling grumpy.

Merlin licked his lips.

"Dobby!" he called out.

There was a loud crack.

"Master Emrys!"

Merlin grinned. He loved Dobby. The house elf might be completely submissive to Lucius and very wary of Draco, but the house elf had been delighted to serve him from the moment he had met him. Apparently, house elves could tell that he was Merlin just from looking at him. It probably hadn't helped that their kind was one of those that remembered the meaning behind the name 'Emrys'.

"Hi, Dobby."

"Master Emrys is such a kind wizard, bothering to greet a lowly house elf."

Merlin shook his head. He had long since given up on convincing Dobby to act in any other way. He was half hoping that Dobby might figure out to stop on his own, but so far he had had no such luck.

"Could you point me in the direction of Lucius's Study, please?"

Dobby's eyes widened dramatically.

"You are too kind, sir. Dobby does not need pleases. Dobby is happy to follow orders, sir."

"Be that as it may Dobby, but I do need to find it quickly." Merlin was careful not to say anything that could be considered an admonishment. He did not like it when the house elves had to punish themselves.

Dobby bowed to Merlin. "Of course, Master Emrys, Sir. Master Lucius's study is in that direction." Dobby pointed to Merlin's left.

Merlin nodded. "Thank you, Dobby. Now, you'd best be off. If Lucius notices you disappeared, tell him that I needed some tea whilst I started on my Christmas homework."

"Master Emrys is too kind, sir. Dobby does not need-"

Merlin did not here the rest of what Dobby had been about to say because he had set off down the hall at a fast pace.

"Dangos i mi lleoliad Lucius Malfoy."

His muttered spell gave him the vague sensation of Lucius's presence in another area of the mansion. Merlin grinned. He wouldn't need to worry about the man being in his study. Oh no, the stuck up pureblood was too busy entertaining some random guest. Nonetheless, Merlin still did not want to risk that Lucius might decide to take one of his death eater guests to the study for a private conversation, so he quickened his fast walk to a run.

Merlin dashed down the corridor, turned the corner, and ran full pelt into Draco who had been running in the other direction. Both boys wound up on the floor groaning.

"By Avalon Draco! What are you doing here?" Merlin asked once he had regained his feet.

"My mansion," Draco snapped back, holding out a hand to be pulled up.

Rolling his eyes, Merlin did so. "So who's chasing you?" he asked brightly.

Draco glared. "No one is – chasing – me as such." Merlin raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "But a certain Blaise Zabini is refusing to accept that I want nothing to do with him."

Merlin nodded in understanding. "I see." Then he grinned.

"What is it?" Draco asked suspiciously.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come and have a look around your dear fathers study with me."

Draco narrowed his eyes. "You want to find out if he has anything to do with the Quirrell thing."

Merlin shrugged. "It couldn't hurt."

Draco sighed. "Maybe not." He paused and glared at Merlin's expectant smile. "Oh all right."

"Excellent."

"You knew I was going to give up from the start, didn't you?"

"I'm very good at convincing people."

"Oh, come on then."

Draco turned on his heel and started heading back the way he had come. Merlin let out a small bark of laughter before following him.

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O00O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O

Merlin hissed in annoyance. The papers that Lucius had in his desk, despite being those most heavily protected by some disturbingly dark magic, held absolutely nothing of importance.

"Have you found anything?" came Draco's voice over his shoulder.

"If I had, do you think I would sound as though I was trying to speak Parseltongue?"

Merlin looked back at Draco, ensuring his expression made his annoyance perfectly clear.

Draco shrugged, then frowned. "Can you speak Parseltongue?" he asked curiously.

"Well, yes," Merlin admitted, "but that was hardly the point."

Draco shrugged then opened his mouth to respond –

– Only to be interrupted by voices outside the study.

"I think that our conversation would be best held within my private study."

"O-of course l-lord M-Malfoy"

"Lucius, please."

Merlin eyes widened as he cursed his stupidity. He had neglected to keep the spell informing him of Lucius' whereabouts active. They were about to be discovered.

"Hide!" hissed Draco, grabbing Merlin by the arm and dragging him over to the corner of the room, looking at him desperately.

"Cuddio o'r golwg ni" he whispered quickly, and not a moment too soon, for not a few seconds after he had spoken, the door to the study swung open to reveal Lucius Malfoy, closely followed by professor Quirrell.

Merlin watched as Lucius moved to sit at his desk.

"Now then, Quirrell. What is it that you wanted to inform me of?"

"L-Lucius."

"Indeed, I do believe that is my name."

"I-I have come to you w-with a message from the Dark L-Lord."

One of Lucius's eyebrows rose.

"Is that so, Quirrell? Now why would the Dark Lord send me any sort of message through you?"

"H-he wished me to inform y-you of a new opposition to the d-dark o-order."

"And this opposition is . . . ?"

"T-the one w-who stopped me from retrieving the p-philosopher's stone called himself . . ." Quirrell trailed off.

"Called himself what?" Lucius snapped. "Out with it man."

"M-Merlin. He called himself Merlin."

"He what?!"

Quirrell continued, probably wanting to get the entire conversation over and done with. "He defeated me with ease and knocked me unconscious. By the time I had regained by senses the stone had been taken." Merlin noticed that the man did not stutter once as he said this. Then he frowned, realising what the man had said. He had certainly not attacked Quirrell. All he had done was to issue a warning. Quirrell was the coward who had decided to flee upon learning Merlin's name.

Lucius narrowed his eyes. "Obviously you did not look hard enough. As a governor of Hogwarts, I can tell you that the stone itself was left behind."

"It was not!" Quirrell sounded furious that Lucius was correcting him.

"It was," Lucius said coldly. "Dumbledore himself informed me that the stone was abandoned on the floor of its hiding place after this so-called Merlin apparently drained its powers and turned it into nothing more valuable than a paper weight."

"So-called?" Quirrell demanded. "What do you mean by that?"

"Think about it you fool. Merlin died over a thousand years ago. Even if he did not, why on earth would he decide to show himself now? Your logic is flawed, Quirrell. Your little intruder was most certainly not the legendary Merlin."

Quirrell scowled. "He told me the Potter boy was under his protection. Perhaps that is why he showed himself now."

Merlin blinked. It seemed that Quirrell was smarter than Merlin had given the man credit for. Not that it was a hard leap to make, just one that most would overlook due to the impossibility of his claim. Merlin had been surprised the man had actually believed it.

Lucius sighed. "You should return to Hogwarts."

"Why? It is not as though we have anything more to gain there."

Lucius glared at him. "Just because you are ignorant does not mean that others are." At Quirrell's questioning stare Lucius continued. "I have heard rumours that the Cup of Life has entered Dumbledore's protection."

"The cup of Life?" Quirrell sounded confused.

"What are you, a mudblood?" Lucius sneered. "Read up on your mythology you cretin and leave me alone."

Quirrell sent him a dark look before bowing and muttering his farewells. He then opened the door to leave the room. Merlin and Draco managed to slip out with him before the door had closed.

Once the pair was far enough away from the study, Merlin dropped the invisibility, and Draco sagged into an untidy mess on the floor.

"I can't believe it," Draco whispered, sounding horrified.

"Believe what?" Merlin asked.

"Father works for Voldemort."

"Don't call him that. It's Mouldyvort remember. And besides, it's not as though you didn't know already."

Draco closed his eyes. "I know, it's just –"

"It didn't seem so real before?" Merlin suggested.

Draco gave a tiny nod in reply.

Merlin gave his friend a small smile. "Don't worry, Draco. We'll be back at Hogwarts soon, and then you can go back to annoying Harry while I try to find a way to call truce."

"And Hermione," Draco pointed out with a weak smile. "I intend to irritate her as well, and the Weasley brat too."

Merlin smirked. "Well of course them. I rather assumed that I didn't need to remind you of that."

"I should hope not," Draco muttered darkly before sighing and standing up again, giving his clothes a quick dusting off. "Now we better return to the party. If we are gone when father returns, he may notice."

Merlin groaned. "But I hate parties."

Draco snorted "Suck it up," he told Merlin before dragging him off in the direction of the guests.


	13. Chapter 13

**I don't really think I need to explain why I did not yesterday**

**but I will anyway**

**basically the fanfiction server was down**

**don't know why**

**but it was**

**so you get my chapter today instead**

**...**

**is it just me or do my chapters seem to be shrinking in length**

***sighs***

**I'll try to fix that for next week. . . **

**oh yeah**

**if any of you know any good HP fanfiction where Harry is evil/joins Voldie/his twin is the BWL can you let me know**

**cos I'm addicted to those sorts of stories currently and I can't get enough**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Merlin sat cross legged in the middle of the room of requirement, not that the room was very big currently. He doubted it would have taken him any more than three steps to pace the diameter of the place. Merlin hummed as he watched one of the walls. The wall was showing the interior of Dumbledore's office. From the way the daft old man was humming merrily as he ate muggle sweets, Merlin had the feeling that the man did not really care about how the philosopher's stone had been stolen. Now that he knew Mouldyvort was going after the Cup of Life as well, Merlin did not want to risk leaving the cup in an area where he knew Mouldyvort had already successfully infiltrated.

The only real problem now was that Merlin had no real idea as to where the cup of life had been hidden. Normally, this would have reinsured him. After all, if Merlin had not been able to figure something out, how could another? However, as the old professor had made no move to find the person who had destroyed the stone, not that the man would have been able to, he was Merlin. Merlin did not feel he could trust Dumbledore to actually care for the Cup of Life. He had not been able to protect the belongings of a 'dear friend', so how could Merlin expect the man to protect something which had been given to him by a complete stranger?

Merlin's eyes narrowed as someone knocked on the door to Dumbledore's office. The old man looked up from whatever the man was working on at his desk.

"Come in," Dumbledore called to whoever was on the other side of the door.

The man who entered had long brown hair that was tied back in a low ponytail. His skin was unhealthily pale, and he had a long nose and fingers. Merlin could not tell what the man's eye colour was. It was not that he did not have a clear enough view, there was some sort of magic which was covering them. A glamour? Merlin cursed that he was unable to see through the glamours of those he was not directly viewing.

"Dumbledore." The man's voice was low and cultured.

"Doremad." Came the man's short reply.

'Doremad' hummed. "I take it you know the whereabouts of Cup of Life."

Merlin's eyes fixed on Doremad's face. If this man knew of the Cup of Life, then there was every possibility that the man would be aiming to steal it.

"Of course." Came Dumbledore's easy reply.

Doremad hissed. "Well where is it you old fool!" The man's voice kept the same pitch but no longer seemed even slightly harmless.

Dumbledore only smiled, his eyes taking on the slightly annoying glint that some would call a twinkle. "But my dear boy, do you not wish for the thrill of adventure in looking for that which you seek?"

"Crucio."

To Merlin's surprise, Dumbledore gave no verbal signal of his pain, though the man hunched over himself, and the little that Merlin could see of his face through Dumbledore's silver hair, was twisted in a pained expression.

Merlin frowned. Because Dumbledore to have been casual with Doremad, he had assumed the two had known each other. Perhaps Doremad had been a previous student of Hogwarts? But for Doremad to use an unforgivable on Dumbledore, well. Merlin doubted that any student would do that.

Doremad stepped closer to Dumbledore, who had now slumped and was leaning on the top of his desk. "Come now, Albus. Don't be like that. All I want is a little information." Doremad's eyes were as cold as ice. "Where is the Cup of Life?"

"Is that any way to treat a headmaster Molltivro?" Dumbledore gasped out.

Merlin hummed. He was guessing that Molltivro was Doremad's first name. So Dumbledore's mysterious friend was called Molltivro Doremad. It was not a pureblood's name, but it did not sound like a name that would be given to someone not of magical descent. Perhaps the man was a half-blood.

Doremad did not seem to like Dumbledore's continued refusal to answer his question, so he shot another crucio at him.

This time, Dumbledore did not immediately speak when the curse was lifted and only responded when an irate Doremad hissed warningly at him.

"T-the tallest astronomy t-tower."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. That had been easier than he had expected. He would have to thank Doremad for his help if he ever encountered the man.

"A'nghymryd i'r twr talaf seryddiaeth" Merlin said, his eyes glowing gold as a miniature tornado whipped up around him, blurring his vision. Once the wind had cleared, he found himself looking at the clear night sky.

Merlin smirked. This was too easy. His eyes raked over the top of the tower, and he allowed himself a small growl of frustration.

"Dangos i mi y lleoliad yr hyn sydd pwll" he spat. He needed to move quickly. He had no wish to encounter Doremad here.

Merlin's eyes picked up a faint glow which was coming from the shadows of one of the parapets. Merlin narrowed his eyes in anger as he realised that all that Dumbledore had done to hide the Cup of Life was to leave it somewhere that most people didn't go. It had not even gotten a lazy Cerberus to guard it.

With a partial pout on his face, although he felt very glad that he did not have to avoid any more traps, Merlin reached down a plucked the cup from the ground.

Immediately, he hissed in pain.

Images were flashing through his mind. Dumbledore had placed some sort of spell on the cup. The magic was unravelling Merlin's disguise and was aging him to how he looked naturally. Once it had finished Merlin opened his eyes warily.

And jumped backwards in shock.

Standing before him was something which was transparent like a ghost. Whatever the thing was, it gave off the same aura that the Drochea had given off. Merlin shuddered. The thing had a vague resemblance to humanity as it was vaguely humanoid. The thing's face, though, was grey skin that clung to disfigured bones. Scars were laid in crosses that looked scarily as though they had been carved into its face deliberately. It was not bald. Instead, there were random wisps of hair attached to its face and hands which floated as though the creature was underwater. Black rags clung to its body, soaked in what looked to be blood.

"State your intent."

Merlin blinked. So . . . the thing was a guardian.

"State your intent," it repeated.

"What are you?" Merlin asked instead.

"State your intent."

Merlin tilted his head sideways. "You know, that gets old very quickly."

"State your intent."

Merlin sighed. "I have come to retrieve what is mine," he told the creature.

It was silent for a moment before it leaned in closer to Merlin. Despite himself, Merlin shrank back in fear.

"You speak the truth," it said finally.

"Uh . . . yeah," Merlin said.

"What is your name?" The creature asked

"My name?" Merlin asked, unsure of what was happening.

"I guard your treasure," the creature told him.

"I've noticed," Merlin muttered.

"I will continued to guard it."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"I must know the name of the one I serve to protect the treasure."

Merlin blinked. "You know," he started slowly, "I did ask for what you were first. I think I have the right to know that first."

The creature did not move. After an agonising few minutes, Merlin decided that it was not going to answer, so he opened his mouth to continue.

"My kind has no name," it said before he could speak.

"Ah." Was all Merlin could say in reply.

"What is your name?" it asked again. "Be warned if you lie, no matter the reason, I will kill you."

Merlin nodded slowly. He honestly did not know how the creature would kill him, but he had no doubt that even if it did not work, it would still be very painful.

"My name is Merlin," he told the creature

It nodded. "Go then, Merlin. Take your treasure and leave."

And then it was gone.

Merlin stared at the empty air for a second before shaking himself quickly.

"Right," he muttered to himself. "Now all I need to do is head back to the Slytherin dorms."

"Mynd â fi i'r ystafelloedd cysgu slytherin"

After the magical tornado had once again dissipated, Merlin collapsed into his bed, tucking the cup of life underneath. He was exhausted. The cup could wait until tomorrow.

* * *

Merlin was in the great hall for breakfast the next morning when Dumbledore got to his feet and cleared his throat.

The hall fell silent and all eyes turned to the old man.

"Students," Dumbledore began, "I am disappointed to inform all of you that last night, a grievous theft was discovered. An object which was placed under my protection has been taken by a person or persons unknown. It is to my great displeasure that I must tell you that only one of your number could have pulled this off." At that a great number of whispers started up around the hall. "I must ask whoever is responsible for this to come forward and return the Cup of Life immediately. If you fail to come forward and admit to your theft, then I will be forced to have searches performed on each of the house dorms. I do not wish to have to do this, and for now, it is only a warning. Thank you." The man then sat down and continued eating as though he had simply commented on the weather.

Merlin contained the growl that wanted to escape from his lips. Wonderful, now he had to think of a way to hide the cup so that it would not be found during the searches. Just fantastic.


	14. Chapter 14

**Betaed now**

* * *

**greatings my loyal readers**

**and celebrate**

**for today is the first day of my half term **

**still have to revise though :(**

**anyway, this chapter has not been betaed yet, so forgive any errors**

**I was going to wait till I got the betaed version, but then decided you probably wanted this and I could always put that up later**

**yeah . . . **

**enjoy**

* * *

Merlin was sitting in the great hall eating breakfast when Hermione came up to him and sat down at the Slytherin table.

She gave him a small smile and thoroughly ignore the mutters of "Mudblood" that came from around her as Merlin's fellow Slytherins reluctantly moved away to give her room to sit. Then again, it could have been because they did not want to touch anyone of dirty blood.

"Hi Morynn," she greeted, giving a small nod to Draco as well.

"Hermione." Draco's voice was smooth, the perfect pureblood neutrality.

Merlin OFFERED her a smile, even though he was confused as to why she had come to sit with them.

Hermione shifted, clearly wanting to say something but unable to find a way to START the topic. Merlin held back a chuckle. Hermione was actually trying not to be blunt for once. It was rather refreshing.

"Oh I give up!" she eventually said in frustration. "Morynn, Harry and Ron are saying that you and Draco are the ones who stole the cup. They're wrong aren't they?"

Draco snorted. "Of course they are."

"We-ell," Merlin said slowly, grinning sheepishly as Hermione and Draco turned towards him. "I may or may not have found the cup when I was exploring the astronomy tower at night."

Draco blinked. "What were you doing up there?"

"You know how I had the room of requirement set up to spy on Dumbledore?"

"No."

"Oh, well, I did. Anyway, I heard him discussing with this guy named Molltivro Doremad about where he had hidden the cup of life."

"That's not important!" Hermione's voice was shrill and both Draco and Merlin stared at her expectantly. "How could you Morynn! I thought you were one of the good guys. How could you do something like that?!"

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Hermione, I was the one who gave the cup of life to Dumbledore in the first place. I had every right to take it back." Draco nodded in agreement. "Good thing I did hadn't even hidden it properly. If a student had found it, the curse on the thing might have killed somebody."

Hermione stared at him with wide eyes. "So you didn't take what wasn't yours."

"Nope."

She gave a small sigh of relief. "Oh thank, Merlin." She went red as she realised what she had said.

Merlin laughed. "You're welcome, Hermione."

Draco grinning and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's great, but what curse are we talking about here Merlin?"

Merlin shrugged "Nothing special, just some sort of unearthly monster that seems to have decided to guard the cup. Good thing it recognised me as its owner. It may not have been able to kill me, but I do not want to find out what it is capable of."

Hermione frowned. "I've never heard about that."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Hermione, genius you may be, but please remember that you are only a first year. You don't know everything."

Hermione went red. "I know that!" she protested.

Draco butted into the conversation before Hermione could say anything else. "So do you know what it was, Morynn?"

Merlin shook his head. "Nope!" he said merrily. "Yet another reason I would be shocked if Hermione knew anything.

Hermione glared at him. "So what did you do with the cup anyway?"

Merlin blinked. "Well. I, err."

"You what?" Draco asked him

Merlin gave them a sheepish smile. "I may have just tossed the thing under my bed and forgotten about it."

Draco stared at him. "Let me get this straight," he said. "You left a one of a kind artefact in the Slytherin dormitories." Merlin nodded. "Please tell me you at least lifted the curse?"

Merlin shook his head slowly. "I may not have done that, so that would be a no."

"Wonderful," Draco muttered darkly.

"Morynn," Hermione said scoldingly. "You can't just leave it there. It isn't well protected enough."

Merlin raised an eyebrow "Well, I hardly think Mouldyvort is going to expect the thing to be hidden under a first year's bed"

Hermione frowned but did not comment further.

Draco, though, seemed to have taken up her complaint. "Morynn, that's not what matters."

"What then?" Merlin asked.

"Dumbledore said he was going to do a search of the dorm by the end of the week. That's tomorrow!"

"Wait, when did he set a deadline?" Merlin asked, shocked.

"A week ago." Draco told him. "Morynn, you need to hide that thing and fast."

Merlin sighed. "You have a point. Look, I'll go do it now."

Hermione sat up. "Oh, I almost forgot."

"What is it Hermione?" Merlin asked.

"It's Hagrid."

"That oaf? What's he done now?" Draco said scathingly.

"I like Hagrid," Hermione told Draco, rising to Hagrid's defence.

"Hermione . . ." Merlin prompted.

"Right. Well, he's got a dragon egg."

Draco stared at her. "A dragon egg," he muttered in awe. "How did he manage that?!"

Merlin groaned. "Great, more problems."

Draco turned to him. "What are you crazy, I know you have Aithusa, but this is still a dragon."

Merlin sighed. "I'm just going to work on one problem at a time. I'll go hide the cup now, and I'll see what I can do about the cup tonight."

Hermione smiled at him. "Thanks, Morynn. Sorry about piling everything onto you."

Merlin just waved her off and started the walk back to the Slytherin dormitories.

When he arrived, he saw Aithusa curled up on his bed and smiled.

_Aithusa_, he called mentally.

_What is it Merlin?_

_There's news._

_I'm going to just guess that its bad news._

_And you would be right._

_Why can't it ever be good news?_ Aithusa complained.

Merlin shrugged. _I have no idea._

_So what is it?_

_Well, there's two things actually._

_Well . . ._

_First, I need to find a new hiding place for the cup. Dumbledore's searching the dormitories tomorrow. Any ideas?_

Aithusa hummed softly in his mind. _Why not ask Hogwarts to make a hiding place of its own. Like the room of requirement, but not in a way where other people will be able to access._

Merlin blinked. _That's a good idea, Aithusa._

_Why so surprised?_ She asked dryly.

Merlin laughed. _Anyway, problem two._

_I hope it's as easy as the first to solve._

_Hagrid has a dragon egg._

_He what?_ Aithusa sounded outraged.

Merlin nodded to her yelp._ And he wants to hatch the dragon and keep it as a pet._

_How dare he! Dragon kind are not some dumb beasts to enslave._

_And therein lies the problem._

_It is no problem. Simply return me to my original form, and I shall burn the fool for daring to do such a thing._

Merlin sighed. _Aithusa, you can't do that._

_Well, why not!_

_Because your kind of dragon is supposed to be long extinct._

Aithusa glared at him, and Merlin sighed._ Look, I'm going to go and talk to him tonight. You can come if you like, should lead credence to the whole dragonlord thing._

_You intend to reveal yourself as a dragonlord._

_It is the only solution I can think of._

_It is a stupid solution._

_As many of my plans are, they still work, though._

_That does not change the stupidity._

_Look, I won't go as Morynn, I won't even go as Merlin._

_So you shall go as Dragoon?_

_Yes. Now stop talking to me. I need to hide the cup and get off to class before I am late._

Merlin pulled the cup out from under his bed and bit his lip. It was all well and good putting it in a hiding place in Hogwarts, even asking the castle to create a new place just to put the cup would not be too much trouble for him, but Merlin did need to think about where he would place the entrance. It would only be able to be opened from one place after all.

_Just make the entrance by your bed_.

Merlin looked back at Aithusa. _But it's too obvious._

_As if that will matter, even if they know where the entrance is, just make it so that only you can retrieve it._

_I'm such an idiot sometimes._

_No Merlin, you're an idiot all of the time._

Merlin sent a glare at Aithusa but followed her suggestion.

"Castell Hogwarts, mam nerthol o'ch myfyrwyr, mae angen i mi lle i guddio y cwpan o fyw, fel bod neb llai na y gallaf ddod o hyd iddo."

The wall which the headrest of Merlin's bed lay against glowed, then the bricks drew away, showing an enclave large enough to house the cup. Merlin smiled and place the cup within it before standing back to watch the cup be hidden by the walls of the castle.

_Merlin._

_Yes, Aithusa._

_Don't you have lessons to get to?_

Merlin's eyes widened and he ran from the dormitories, grabbing his books as he fled to Potions. At least his first class today was not too far to go.

* * *

When classes were over, Merlin told Draco that he was going down to see Hagrid about the dragon egg. Draco had wanted to come with him, but Merlin had convinced him to stay behind with the argument that Merlin needed to go unrecognized, and that Merlin would bring the egg back to show Draco anyway.

A flash of golden eyes had Merlin's body aging rapidly until he stood with an aching back forcing him to lean forward in a hunch. Another flash of gold turned his wand back into the Sidhe Staff,and Merlin leant against it, eyeing the hut by the forest before striding out towards it.

He did not knock on the door, instead he swung it wide open, only to blink as four people turned towards him. It seemed that the golden trio had decided to visit the half giant again.

"Who're yer?" Hagrid demanded angrily.

Merlin turned his head to him sharply, making the tall man flinch back. Ha, he knew his gaze was frightening. Gaius had just been making fun of him.

"I am Dragoon," Merlin grunted and stepped forwards into the hut, ignoring the other occupants.

He knelt at the fire and looked at the egg with sharp blue eyes, refusing to let his eyes widen as he realised just what Hagrid had found. This was no ordinary dragon egg. This was actually the egg of a great dragon. He had not seen one of these since finding Aithusa's egg. Merlin frowned, you did not hatch a great dragon by dumping it in a fire.

He reached into the flames and pulled the egg out, ignoring the gasps of the golden trio as he did what probably should have given him some serious burns.

He turned back to Hagrid, anger dancing in his eyes.

"You are an idiot!" He yelled at the man.

"A dollop head, a cabbage brain." Merlin frowned. "I really need to think up some knew insults," he muttered to himself.

"Who der yer think yer are!" Hagrid roared back, just as angry. "Yer gonna hurt ther dragon if yer take it out o ther fire. Tha's what the book says."

Merlin glared. "I already told you that I am Dragoon, but because you are so ignorant I shall explain further, I am a dragonlord you great buffoon, and I can easily tell you that putting this sort of an egg in the flames will not cause it to hatch, but will instead kill the hatchling within."

Hagrid spluttered. "Tha's a lie," he told Merlin, though he sounded uncertain.

"Oh," Merlin snapped. "And how would you know that? Hmm"

"Well, I . . . what would yer know anyway.

"This is the egg of a great dragon."

"And why should tha make any difference?"

"Because." Aithusa, in her dragon form, and about the size of Hagrid's dog, said as she walked through the open door. "We Great Dragons have always been hatched differently to these mongrel half breeds."

Hagrid gaped at her. "Yer a dragon." He muttered in awe.

"Am I really?" She said sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed. Thank you so much for helping me out there. I thought I was a horse."

Hagrid blinked. "Well, okay then." He turned back to Merlin "Tha may be true, but tha egg is still mine"

"A dragon belongs to no one. A Great Dragon even less so," Merlin told him

"Look. Dragoon, or wha'ever yer name is. Jus tell me how ter hatch ther dragon an be on yer way"

"I will do no such thing."

"Well, why not?"

"Because, a Great Dragon can only be hatched by a dragonlord."

And with that Merlin walked out of the hut, egg cradled with one arm and Aithusa on his heels.

He muttered a spell causing him and Aithusa to fade from the sight of Hagrid and the golden trio, and another returned his age to that of a first year and Aithusa back into a cat.

He grinned at Aithusa. "Well that was easy." He told her happily.

She eyed him "Yes, well, I honestly was not expecting to find one of my kind in a place like that."

Merlin nodded in agreement. "I'll have to think of a name for him."

Aithusa nodded "Do it quickly. I am sure he would love to stretch his wings soon."

Merlin smiled and hurried faster down into the dungeons.

When he arrived, Draco was the only one still in the common room. Merlin smiled at him.

"Hey Draco," he said.

"Merlin."

"Want to see something amazing?"

Draco looked up, eyes widening as he saw the egg.

Merlin laughed at his expression and carefully placed the egg upon the table.

"Want to see it hatch?" he asked Draco.

Draco nodded hurriedly, leaning forwards as much as he could.

Merlin grinned and turned to the egg. After a moment of thought he spoke.

"I name you Skotadi."

The top of the egg broke of, revealing a triangular head. The dragon turned to look round at his audience before turning his attention to escaping the last shards of his egg.

Merlin smiled at the sight, then frowned.

"Aithusa."

"Yes, Merlin."

"We can't let him grow up as a Great Dragon should."

Aithusa lowered her head. "I know." Was all she said.

"It's too dangerous." Merlin said apologetically. He sighed and looked at Skotadi.

He reached out to the dragon and touched his flank.

_Hello little one,_ he said mentally, knowing the young dragon would not yet be capable of speech.

_Dragonlord._ Skotadi's voice sounded reverent.

Merlin smiled _yes_ he said simply. Then he frowned. _Little one, I have a proposition for you._

_What is it Dragonlord? I will do what I can to help you._ The dragon's eyes shone bright with excitement.

_If I were to ask if you would allow me to turn you into a cat for a while, would you accept?_

_Anything, Dragonlord._

Merlin frowned. He did not like the sound of that._ You have your own free will Skotadi._ He told the young dragon.

Skotadi dipped his head._ I know that dragonlord, and it is of my free will that I accept._

Merlin looked at the little hatchling._ If you were to become a cat, you would not become my familiar, for I have Aithusa, instead you would be Draco's._

Skotadi turned to look at Draco before turning back. _I still accept dragonlord._

Merlin nodded. _Call me Merlin, for that is my name little one. Now hold still, this may feel uncomfortable._

"Trowch Skotadi ifanc i mewn i gath fach." As Merlin's eyes flashed gold Skotadi shrank until he looked to be a pure black kitten.

Draco raised an eyebrow at the now kitten. "Are you going to fill me in?" he asked.

Merlin nodded with a grin. "Yep. Draco, may I introduce to you; your new familiar, Skotadi."


	15. Chapter 15

**New Chapter!**

**yay**

**you know, I surprised no one has asked me about Doremad yet**

**He is an important character you know**

**and also the fact that Dumbles was acting strangely (gasp)**

**and no one has pointed this out . . . **

**I don't know whether I made it too obscure or whether you guys just don't care . . .**

**yeah . . .**

**you can read the chapter now**

* * *

Hermione had been in the library all week, and Merlin was beginning to wonder what she had been researching. Merlin frowned as he stared at the back of her head in Defence Against the Dark Arts. He was going to jump her after the class had ended, find out what was bothering her, and he needed to bring her up to date on the Skotadi situation.

Merlin drummed his fingers against the desk as he waited for the lesson to end. It annoyed him how Hogwarts seemed to think that INVESTING in clocks was not worthwhile, and then you lost house points for casting a tempus. It was as though the teachers didn't like you knowing the time, and then they punished you for being late to lessons.

Quirrell was stuttering badly as he lectured the class. Nearly no one was paying him any attention and of the few that were. Only Hermione seemed to be having any luck in deciphering what he was saying. Then again, who knew what she was writing. She could have been writing a detailed complaint to the ministry about how useless the man's teaching methods were. Actually, that would be quite fun. Merlin glanced down at his unfolded parchment and briefly considered getting out a quill to do just that.

He looked up in time to see Harry turn around in his chair to glare at Merlin, probably still hating him for what the Gryffindors had decided was brainwashing. Merlin raised an eyebrow at him, struggling not to laugh as Harry tried to glare at him. It was obvious that the boy was not very good at it. Merlin elbowed Draco, who looked like he was trying to sleep. Keeping up with Skotadi was probably preventing him from sleeping the full night. The young dragon turned kitten was very energetic.

Draco glared at him and seemed to be trying to convey his exhaustion with his eyes because despite the glare, they were hardly open and looked as though they might fully close at any moment. Merlin shook his head and decided to let his friend rest for now. Draco immediately returned his head to nesting in his arms as he snoozed on the desk.

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The moment class had ended, Merlin grabbed Hermione by the arm. "Hermione," he said softly, getting her attention. "I need to talk to you about something."

Ron pulled Hermione away before she could answer though. "Go away, snake," the ginger spat. "Hermione doesn't have to talk to you." The disgust in his voice was evident.

Merlin just shook his head at Ron's words. The ginger's evident bigot attitude was going to get him in trouble if he challenged one of the other snakes. They didn't have a reason not to bite back.

"Look," Merlin said, trying to keep his voice reasonable. "I just need to talk to Hermione. Is that really too much to ask?"

"Yes." Harry came up to Merlin and spat his answer as he moved so he was standing between Merlin and Hermione.

Merlin sighed. "Doesn't Hermione get a say in this?" he asked, exasperated.

"She doesn't need to. There's no way she would socialise with a snake like you," Ron snarled.

Merlin frowned. Even if the two boys hadn't managed to speak before she could, it was not like Hermione to not interrupt and set them right. Did she agree with them? He leaned around Harry, trying to catch a look at Hermione's face, wondering what he had done to make her refuse to speak with him. He knew that she had done so to Harry and Ron earlier in the year, but he couldn't think of anything he might have done to turn her anger towards him.

Hermione's expression showed that she was deep in though, possibly not hearing him at all. Merlin sighed. Whatever mystery she had taken it upon herself to solve seemed to be causing her to ignore everything else.

"Fine," he conceded, running a hand through his HAIR . "I'll go." He could tell that there was no point trying to talk to her now. It would take too much just to get her to pay attention.

As he turned to leave with Draco, Merlin saw Ron and Harry smirk at his back and restrained the urge to yell at them. Just because he was backing off did not mean that they had won. When Gryffindors acted like this, it was easy to see why the majority of the Slytherin house could not stand them and the rest just ignored them.

Merlin raised an eyebrow as he saw that Draco was still asleep on his desk and rolled his eyes as he walked over and poked the boys arm to wake him up.

"What is it?" Draco muttered, his voice slurred and sleepy.

"Class is over," Merlin told him.

"What?" Merlin sighed, it was obvious that Draco was not listening at all, probably still mostly asleep.

"I'll leave you behind," Merlin told Draco. When Draco still showed no signs of moving, Merlin frowned and leaned in closer only to realise that Draco had fallen asleep entirely.

Merlin sighed. Then he pushed Draco out of his chair and onto the floor. His friend jumped up immediately, his eyes spinning as his body let out a rush of adrenaline before he stopped and glared at Merlin. "Was that really necessary?" Draco asked.

"Yep," Merlin replied cheerfully and turned to leave the classroom, Draco hurrying after them as they both ignored the stares that Quirrell was giving them.

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That evening, Merlin laid awake in his bed, waiting for Aithusa to contact him. After they had hatched Skotadi, Merlin and Aithusa had decided that they would need to keep a close eye on Quirrell again this term, so Aithusa had snuck off to follow the man. She would speak to Merlin over their bond when everyone, including Quirrell, was asleep.

_Merlin?_

Aithusa's call was slightly louder than necessary, but she had been unsure as to whether Merlin was asleep yet.

_What is it, Aithusa?_

_Quirrell just went to sleep._

_I guessed._

_He always stays up so late talking to Mouldyvort. It's getting annoying._

_Is that all you have to tell me?_

_NO!_ Aithusa sounded insulted at Merlin's suggestion.

_Okay, okay, calm down._

_Yes, well, Quirrell was talking to Riddle about the cup of life._

_Oh? And what has he managed to find out about it?_

_Other than it being able to raise the dead? Not much._

_Good._

_But he has been using a tracking spell to hunt it down._

_What do you mean Aithusa?_

_I mean that, even if he isn't able to get the cup out of the wall. He will soon know that you are the one who has hidden it. He's already managed to get it down to somewhere in the dungeons_

_Why didn't you tell me about this before?_

_I didn't know about it before. All he had been doing was staring at one of those swirly orb things. I only know now because he was telling Riddle about it._

_What do you think we should do?_

_It rather depends._

_On what?_

_Do you want anonymity or safety for the cup?_

_As important as the cup is, I do need to keep a low profile. Plus, if my identity is revealed, then I can't exactly continue at Hogwarts._

_Then you need to move the cup._

_But where?_

_I don't know, maybe the room of requirement?_

_No. The spells I used when creating that mean that anyone can access any of the rooms. There is literally no way to hide something in there forever. It was too dangerous of an idea to allow it to work like that._

_I don't know then. Riddle can get anywhere in the school._

_Then I should hide it outside the school._

_Yes, that's a good idea. What about the forbidden forest._

_Mouldyvort can get in there very easily, Aithusa. Merlin was unsure, and it showed in his mental voice._

_Maybe so, but if you ask the forest and its inhabitants to hide it, then they will surely help. All of them will respect you._

Merlin hummed as he though the idea over.

_Okay, you may have a point there. I'll go tomorrow morning. It's too late now._

_You're just TIRED ._

_Maybe so, but still._

_Aithusa's amusement was clear. Just go to sleep, Merlin._

_Goodnight, Aithusa._


	16. Important Authors Note - Read

IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE READ!

Okay

First thing's first

I am so sorry that I didn't update last week

On Saturday I went to London for my nana's birthday

And on Saturday I went to the movies (not a good excuse I know) and then I had to prepare for a French writing controlled assessment (if I didn't do well I am likely to fail the exam given my grades in other areas)

So please forgive me for that

…

Okay

Next topic

Both my stories are being put on hiatus until early July

This is because my GCSEs are in May and June and I need time to revise

I sort of noticed that I will fail my GCSEs if I don't do that

So I cannot afford to be distracted by writing fanfiction

And even if I could have done both at the same time

I would not because I do not want to write this story badly

Which would be what would happen if I tried to continue writing it now

I would rush the chapters and they would not be very good

I am so sorry about this

Please

Please

Forgive me

And wish me luck for my GCSEs

(I will need it)


	17. Chapter 16

**I HAVE RETURNED**

**(told you I would)**

**So yeah, exams are finally over**

**(and they were annoying, I actually turned up to one expecting a different exam . . . though it went surprisingly okay)**

**And I figured out why people who go on hiatus rarely come back**

**It is seriously hard to start writing again after you stop for a period of time**

**seriously, you should have gotten this last week but I only had about 500 words of it and no motivation to write the rest . . .**

**This Chap is UnBetaed **

**I will put the Betaed version up when I get it**

**But I didn't want to keep you guys waiting longer than I already had**

**and I really want to read your reviews**

**hopefully they'll give me the motivation to write the next chapter**

**ENJOY**

**and don't forget to REVIEW**

* * *

Merlin got up at 5am the next morning. He retrieved the Cup of Life from its hiding spot within the wall and stood over Draco's bed as he debated whether or not it was worth waking him. If Merlin did wake Draco, then he could be sure that the young snake would be annoyed at him for the entire day, possibly the week if Draco was in a particularly bad mood. Draco would complain the whole way to the forbidden forest and likely as not he wouldn't stop when lessons started. Waking the boy now also meant that he would likely sleep through all his classes, not just the ones he found boring, and that meant more work for Merlin in keeping Draco up to date with all their school work. But if Merlin didn't wake Draco, then the boy would do all the same complaining, only in that case he would be awake enough to get his own back at Merlin in other ways as well. So really, neither option was exactly the best.

With a sigh, Merlin turned and left Draco sleeping soundly, at the very least this way Merlin would have less work to do over the next few days and Draco's complaints would start later on. Who knows, maybe Merlin would be able to get back before Draco even woke up and would be able to avoid the subject completely, what Draco didn't know he couldn't complain about.

Merlin muttered a spell of invisibility as he exited the Slytherin common room and all but ran as he made his way out of the castle and towards the forest. He avoided the few students who had risen early (mostly Ravenclaws headed for the library) and soon he stood before the trees of the forest.

He didn't pause as he continued into the forbidden forest, no matter how early it was, Merlin didn't want to risk being late for lessons, after all, he didn't know how long it was going to take to find and convince the inhabitants of the forbidden forest to help him.

The dark trees overhead seemed to whisper as Merlin walked beneath them, an idea which may have been accurate considering how much magical energy was likely to have been absorbed by them due to their close proximity to the school. Merlin half wished that Aithusa was with him, the dragon tended to frighten away the more ferocious inhabitants of the forbidden forest, the Acromantula being only one of these species. It wasn't that Merlin couldn't deal with them on his own, but he didn't have the time to fight every magical creature that deemed him easy prey due to his childlike appearance.

Actually, that was a good point. With a flash of golden eyes Merlin returned himself to his true age even as he continued his journey into the forest.

He was deep in the forest when Merlin heard movement. He stopped and turned towards where the noise had come from, knowing that if it were not for his advanced hearing then he would have heard nothing at all. There was no certainty that whatever Merlin had heard was going to attack him or even knew he was there but Merlin did not want to take that risk. He flexed is fingers before him, ready to cast a spell at a moment's notice.

Only to relax when a centaur stepped into view. The centaur was young, not quite fully grown and his fur was a chestnut brown.

"For what reason does Emrys intrude upon our hunting grounds?" The centaur demanded. His bow was clutched at his side, showing that he was not going to attack Merlin immediately but still demonstrating the centaurs perceived superiority over humanity, even over Magic's chosen human. After all, the carrying of a weapon in a way which it could quickly be made ready suggested the centaur herds did not trust Merlin.

Merlin inclined his head "I have come to seek the help of the herds in a matter of some urgency." He told the centaur. It would not do to risk alienating the young colt be refusing him any information, but Merlin had no intention of informing more than the number of people necessary about the cup's location and he did not know if the herds would even help, let alone if this was one of the centaurs who would be helping protect it.

The centaur observed Merlin, unmoving as he did so before nodding and turned, motioning for Merlin to follow as he set of as a fast trot through the forest.

Merlin allowed himself a brief moment of irritation, by Avalon it was hard to keep up with a moving centaur before following the colt at a speed somewhere between a jog and a run.

The centaur (that still hadn't given Merlin his name) led Merlin far deeper into the forest than he had been intending to go, to the point where Merlin was no longer worrying about getting back before Draco woke up, and instead about missed first lesson never mind breakfast. He sighed, he was going to be very hungry come lunch.

When the centaur finally stopped, Merlin found himself standing before three, much elder looking centaurs. Merlin assumed them to be the heads of the herd and bowed his head in greeting.

One of the centaurs returned his greeting with a nod of his own whilst the other two ignored him. Melrin sighed at the way the centaurs were acting. He knew it was much harder for centaurs to claim land to live on nowadays and that humans were those who tended to be to fault, but that was no course to be rude to him.

The centaur that had nodded to him spoke first. "Greetings Emrys, I am Firenze, may the stars shine favourably upon you"

"I am Bane"

"And I Magorian"

Bane spoke again. "For what reason does Magic's favoured seek us out? Does it have to do with the way Mars has been shining brightly these past years?"

Merlin nodded. "Indeed, war is coming. A human be the name of Tom Riddle seeks to usurp the authority of the ministry"

Why should this concern us Emrys?" Magorian interrupted. "We do not involve ourselves in the frivolities of man and we have no love for the ministry."

Merlin resisted the urge to sigh. "That may be so but Riddle hold a hatred for magical beings greater even than the bigotry of the ministry"

"Then we should drive this Riddle from our lands should he ever attempt to enter them." Bane said calmly. "But that does not tell us why you think we would help you."

Melrin shook his head. "I do not seek you help within the war itself. Riddle is a human who has decided to seek immortality and through his search he has come across knowledge of and created Horcruxes."

Firenze let out a shocked gasp. "Horcruxes you say?" He said, then frowned "Though they are the most despicable of magics, I do not see how the centaurs could help you with them"

"I do not seek your help with Horcruxes, but in Riddle's thirst for immortality he has stumbled across knowledge of the Cup of Life."

Bane frowned. "Is not the Cup of Life your responsibility Emrys?"

Merlin nodded. "Indeed, but that is why I am here, due to Riddle's presence within the school, I am unable to protect the Cup as securely as I would like to, and this is why I seek you help." Merlin paused to take a breath. "I ask that the centaur herd protect the Cup whilst I am at Hogwarts until the end of the school year. At that time I will be able to returned the Cup to its resting place upon the isle."

Magorian narrowed his eyes. "And why do you not do so now?" He asked suspiciously.

Merlin did sigh this time. "A much as I wish to do so in order to get this mess over with, Magic requires the Cup's presence within the castle for a reason as yet unknown to me."

Firenze nodded. "In that case I for one am in support of our protecting the Cup in your stead for a time"

Magorian nodded in agreement and Merlin turned to Bane.

Bane glared at Merlin before glancing at both Magorian and Firenze. "Very well, I shall also support this venture."

Melrin bowed his head in gratitude. "Thank you" He said softly and drew the cup out from the folds of his robes, handing it to Firenze. "I must return to the school now, lest Riddle get suspicious of my absence."

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Merlin returned to the dormitories, sighing in relief when he realised he had not missed first lesson, though saddened that he hadn't gotten to eat breakfast, and gathered his books to head for potions.

Draco glared at him when Merlin found him outside the potions classroom. "And where have you been?" He demanded.

Merlin sighed. "I was in the forbidden forest, the centaurs now have the Cup of Life"

Draco opened his mouth to protest at his being left behind when Weasley gasped loudly behind them. Merlin swung around to stare at the boy in near horror, cursing himself for not raising a privacy ward and hoping the boy would not be able to do anything with the information as Weasley hurried to Harry's side, no doubt telling him what he had overheard by the urgent whispers and suspicious glances sent their way.

Draco winced "Sorry" he muttered softly.

Merlin shook his head. "I should have told you earlier." He paused. "Though I really wish they hadn't overheard what I just said. They probably think we're after the Cup of Life now."

Draco glanced at Merlin. "You really should have told me what you were doing though."

Merlin nodded. "I know. But it was 5 in the morning."

Draco blinked, then grinned sheepishly. "IN that case thanks for not waking me up."

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Now help me figure out why Hermione isn't speaking to us."


	18. Chapter 17

**Phew **

**Finally**

**I almost didn't get this finished**

**I ran out of charge on my computer half way through writing this and couldn't find the charger**

**took me nearly an hour of searching to find it**

**I was in a complete panic because I thought I was going to have to put this back on hiatus**

**which would be unfair on you guys cos I'd only just come back**

**but it all worked out in the end**

**so here's your chapter**

**enjoy!**

* * *

At lunch, Merlin nearly forgot to eat again due to his semi-glaring session with Ron over the tables. He called it a semi-glare because he wasn't really doing anything. Seriously, Merlin was just spacing out as he PLANNED, and he just happened to be looking in that direction. Most likely due to Ron and Harry being the source of the problem that Merlin was trying to solve. When Ron had noticed the stare he had begun glaring back, and thus began the semi-glaring session.

After eating, Merlin dragged Draco to the library, ignoring his protests. Merlin needed time to plan, and Draco would be a total bitch about it if he was left out. To be fair, Draco most likely wouldn't have protested if he had known why he was being dragged off to the library, but Merlin hadn't wanted to discuss it in front of their other classmates. Slytherins could be nosier than Gryffindors (they loved the blackmail potential) and Merlin had already managed to let lose the location of the cup to one GROUP of eleven year olds. At least the Gryffindors had a good motive, too. A Slytherin would try to find it for the whole immortality benefit.

Once Merlin and Draco were seated, Merlin put up a privacy ward and turned towards his surrogate brother. Draco, realising that this was serious and not just Merlin dragging him off to read in the library, stopped complaining instantly.

"What's going on?" Draco asked hesitantly.

Merlin narrowed his eyes. "I'm not COMPLETELY certain," he admitted, "but after Weasley overheard our conversation earlier," Draco winced as he said that, "I've been getting a bad feeling. It's as though those two are plotting something. Whatever it is, it's not going to make our lives any easier."

Draco snorted. "They're Gryffindors. What do you expect?"

Merlin sighed. "For them to have at least some sense of self-preservation?" He phrased it like question, and Draco snorted again.

"They're Gryffindors, Merlin. It isn't going to happen."

Merlin slumped. "I know that, but I can at least dream, can't I?"

Draco grinned. "Gryffindors, Merlin."

"Morynn?"

Merlin looked up at the sound of his false name and blinked in surprise. "Regis?" he said as soon as he dropped the privacy ward.

The older boy smirked at him, "The one and only." he said, taking a seat at their table. "How've YOUR mornings been?"

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask that?"

Regis shrugged. "Haven't seen you reading at ungodly hours in the common room. I was curious."

It was Merlin's turn to smirk. "Then you don't want to know."

Regis frowned, "Why not?" he asked

That was when Draco butt into the conversation. "Plausible deniability," he told Regis. "So who are you anyway?

Regis raised an eyebrow. "Regis Zabini, and you're Draco Malfoy."

Draco grinned. "So you've heard of me."

Regis snorted. "Sure, you're the death eater kid that doesn't scream for the blood of Morynn here."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "So they're screaming for me blood NOW?" he asked.

Regis shrugged. "Well, not really, but they're certainly not as friendly towards you as Malfoy is."

Draco frowned. "Wait, you're a Zabini?"

Regis nodded. "Yeah. And I guarantee you're thinking of my younger cousin Blaise when you say the name."

"Of COURSE I am." Draco CONFIRMED. "It's just that you act nothing like him."

Regis grinned. "Of course not, Blaise was raised by the Black Widow, I was raised a true Zabini."

Draco blink. "Oh," he muttered in reply. "So how do you two know each other anyway?"

"I ran into him and two of his friends in the common room. They were the first ones to wake up after me," Merlin told him.

Regis shuddered. "Yeah, sure, woke up."

Merlin stared at him for a moment until Regis explained. "Rach, Rachel Moody that is, takes after her darling paranoid uncle and believes attacking someone with aguamenti is a good way to wake them up."

Merlin winced. That didn't sound like fun. Draco, on the other hand, frowned. "Moody? I'm guessing the paranoid uncle would be the retired Auror, Mad-eye Moody then."

Regis nodded mournfully. "Yep, she's absolutely terrifying."

Merlin shook his head. "So why'd you come over here anyway?"

Regis blinked. "Right, um, some Gryffindor first year girl has been looking for you. Came knocking on the common room door and everything. We were going to just ignore it, but she was looking for you, so we thought it could be possibly she knows you."

Merlin nodded. "That's probably Hermione," he said. "I can't think of any other girl it would be."

Regis nodded. "Cool, glad I could help. She said she was going up to the Owlery for whatever reason. Have fun." He stood up to leave and paused. "And GOOD on whatever I need the plausible deniability for."

Merlin grinned. Thanks," he said, and the third year WALKED off.

Draco raised an eyebrow as he looked at Merlin. "I guess we're off to the Owlery then."

Merlin nodded. "Yep."

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The Owlery was dimly lit, and Merlin could smell the musty scent of the birds that inhabited it as he and Draco ENTERED. Hermione was standing off to one side, a snowy owl resting on her arm as she fed it pieces of sausage which had obviously been saved from lunch.

She looked up as the boys ENTERED and smiled at them sheepishly. "Hi," she said softly.

Merlin grinned happily at her. "Hi, Hermione. Going to tell us what exactly has been on YOUR mind lately?"

Hermione went red. "I-It wasn't IMPORTANT, really. There's no need for you to bother yourself about it."

Draco scowled. "What are you talking about? Whatever it was made you COMPLETELY oblivious to our trying to keep you up to date on just about everything that has happened. It must have been something."

Hermione ducked her head in obvious embarrassment and murmured something that Draco didn't catch. Merlin, however, heard the words loud and clear. "I thought you were just using me. Ron kept saying that all Slytherins hated Gryffindors and that the only reason you were talking to me was to manipulate and use me for your own ends. He said that whatever you'd told me to get me to trust you was a lie, and I shouldn't believe it, and the Merlin stuff was rather far-fetched anyway"

Merlin frowned at her words. "That's ridiculous Hermione, you're my-" at that Draco cleared his throat. "Sorry, our friend. We wouldn't do that to you."

Hermione went even redder than she had been before. "That's why I said it was stupid."

Merlin sighed. "Ah well, it's over now."

Draco smirked. "And it's not as though we can blame you. You've been stuck in a common room filled with Gryffindors. They were bound to try to force their suicidal idiocy into your head sooner or later."

Hermione glared at him. "Gryffindors are not idiots or suicidal."

Draco stared at her as though she was crazy. "Are you sure about that?"

Hermione just darkened her glare, and Merlin sighed. "Would you two please stop fighting? We need to fill Hermione in on everything she's missed anyway."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. I can't have missed much."

Draco smirked. "Want a bet?" he asked. "Cos I've gotten a pet dragon since you STARTED ignoring us."

Hermione stared at him, and Merlin rolled his eyes. "Draco, Skotadi is not a pet."

Draco shrugged. "Yeah, whatever. So basically, Merlin took the dragon egg that you told us Hagrid had, and we hatched it. The dragon is called Skotadi and now belongs to me."

Merlin snorted. "More like sees you as his personal servant."

Hermione blinked slowly and gave a weak smile. "Please tell me that's the most interesting thing that's happened to you since we last spoke."

Merlin tilted his head in thought. "Well, I think it's the most interesting, but it wasn't the only thing we did. I also went into the forbidden forest to hide the cup."

Hermione sighed. "I'd be worried if you weren't, well, you, but at least you didn't do anything too stupid."

Merlin grinned sheepishly. "Well, I did have to talk with a GROUP of centaurs on their home territory."

Hermione stared at him. "But everyone knows centaurs are highly territorial, and that they hate humans."

Merlin shrugged. "Well, there are some benefits to being me, you know."

Hermione sighed. "Never mind." Then she gasped. "Oh, I almost forgot. RON says he overheard you two discussing that you'd hidden the cup in the forbidden forest."

Draco snorted. "Not surprised considering we already knew that."

Hermione shook her head. "No, you don't understand. Ron and Harry have decided to go find to cup before you two do something tomorrow night."

Draco stared at her. "So you're saying that two first years with no experience in combat are planning to enter a forest with forbidden in its name all because they think two fellow first years are up to something?" Hermione nodded in CONFIRMATION . "Please tell me they at least thought to tell a teacher about what's going on?"

Hermione bit her lip. "I don't think so. I should probably go do that NEXT ."

Draco sighed and muttered under his breath. "And you say Gryffindors aren't suicidal idiots because?"

"HEY!"


	19. Chapter 18

**I am so so sorry**

**AN at bottom**

***Hides behind sofa***

* * *

Merlin sat in the Slytherin dormitories that night feeling nervous. His magic was boiling under his skin, warning him of something, yet when Merlin tried to find out why, the answer was denied to him. His magic felt – sad. As though it could foresee a great tragedy, yet knew it could not do a thing to change it. That of itself worried Merlin, and when combined with the knowledge that a certain two Gryffindors were planning to enter the forbidden forest without telling anyone, Merlin felt a tendril of terror pierce his heart. Merlin hadn't felt terror since He had been stabbed, and that had quickly been overshadowed by the despair His rejection had brought him.

Merlin slipped into an uneasy sleep as the clock approached midnight.

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_It was dark._

_He could vaguely make out the outlines of branches overhead._

_He was running_

_No, he was being chased_

_There was something behind him._

_It was fast._

_Faster than him._

_It was catching up._

_It was coming._

_Running_

_Feet pounding._

_Breathing heavily._

_Running._

_Faster._

_Faster._

_He had to go faster._

_He was going to get caught._

_Foot caught a root._

_Tripping._

_Turning._

_Shaking in terror._

_Eyes sweeping the darkness._

_ Searching_

_It was coming._

_Where was it?_

_There!_

_A face._

_Twisted in a cruel sneer._

_Mocking him._

_ Steppingcloser._

_Slowly._

_Terror._

_He had to run._

_But he couldn't move._

_Helpless._

_Molltivro Doremad smirked down at him in triumph._

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Merlin's eyes snapped open, jerking up and leaping out of bed even before he fully woke up. Damn it. This wasn't supposed to happen. Hermione had said that those two idiots hadn't intended to do anything until tomorrow night. He was supposed to have more time than this. That vision had been of current events. This was happening now. He had to hurry. If he didn't, then who knew what was going to happen to Harry. He couldn't let Harry die, not like Him. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he failed again.

He scrambled around the dormitory as he grabbed and changed into some robes, before running out of the room as fast as he could go. Merlin did not even notice the sleepy groans from the other first year Slytherins as they complained at his early awakening, nor did he realise that Draco was following him until he was out on the grounds of Hogwarts castle, all but in the forbidden forest already.

"Merlin!" Draco called out to him. "Wait up, what are you doing? Hermione said nothing was going to happen until tomorrow night."

Merlin blinked at him, his eyes still bleary and out of focus, and his mind still reeling from the aftereffects of his dream, understanding why Morgana had always seemed so out of it whenever she had a vision. "We don't have time. I don't know why, but those two idiots went out before Hermione thought they would."

Draco stared at him for a moment before turning towards the forbidden forest. "What are we waiting for then?" he grimaced. "By Avalon, I feel like a bloody Gryffindor."

Merlin winced. "It's not just them though," he said softly as he set forward into the forest, no longer running outright, but still jogging as he followed the thrumming of his magic as it led him. "There was someone else there."

"Who?" Draco asked as he struggled to keep up behind him. Even if Draco was a better flyer, he had never been as physically fit as Merlin.

"Molltivro Doremad," Merlin answered with a grim expression. After glancing at Draco and seeing his friend's confused face, he elaborated. "I'm not certain who he is, but he is after the cup. He cast a crucio on Dumbledore to get him to give him the cups location."

Draco opened his mouth to ask Merlin further questions, but stopped when Merlin raised his hand and came to a standstill.

Merlin turned, narrowing his eyes as he listened intently. He had heard something. He didn't know what it was. Whatever it had been it had either been very far away or very quiet.

"Harry." There it was, more like a groan than a shout, but it was enough for Merlin to set off at a run towards it, ignoring Draco's huff of irritation at being left behind.

Merlin found the source of the groan quickly enough. It was Ronald Weasley. The boy was collapsed on the ground and was unmoving even as his mouth moved to form words that the boy did not speak.

"Harry." Ronald groaned again, and Merlin knelt next to him, grimacing at the blood that was pooling around his head.

Draco caught up with Merlin and gasped. "What happened to him?" he demanded.

Merlin glanced up at him "Don't know," he answered shortly before standing up. "Whatever it was he has a nasty head injury, you need to take him to Madam Pomfrey now."

"But-" Draco protested before being cut off.

"Draco, he needs medical attention now, but I don't have the time to give it to him. If I wait, then anything could have happened to Harry. We don't have time for this Draco. You need to take him now." Then Merlin left, not checking to see if Draco was following his instructions, and ran as fast as he could after the calling of his magic.

As he ran deeper into the forest, Merlin caught glimpses of what had happened to other inhabitants of the forest. He passed several centaurs and even a unicorn, all of which were lying on the ground almost peacefully, even though Merlin could feel that they were no longer amongst the living. The sign of the killing curse. Merlin could only hope that Harry had not yet met the same fate.

"Get away!"

Merlin heard Harry's voice rise in a panicked shout, almost a scream, close by and wished he could run faster, entering the clearing just in time to see Molltivro Doremad plunge a curved dagger into Harry's chest.

Merlin ran forwards, flinging Doremad off of Harry with a strength that defied the look of his bony frame, reaching out desperately with his hands to yank out the dagger and stop the flow of blood. Merlin felt like screaming, this scene felt so familiar, so terrifyingly familiar. No. It couldn't happen again. He had lost Him. He couldn't lose Harry as well. Not before the boy had even had a chance to live his life!

Merlin desperately spoke words of healing, his eyes glowing brighter than they ever had before as he pushed more and more and more magic into the dying boy in front of him.

Harry looked up at him, his mouth shaping to form words which came out as though they were whispers.

"Morynn?" Harry gave a shuddering breath. "I thought… though you were…"

Merlin shushed him, refusing to let his ward waste his strength in such a way, instead concentrating on flooding as much magic into the boy as he could. If his spells didn't work, then maybe adding more magic would force them to. Merlin ignored the voice in the back of his head, which was telling him that the only reason for him being unable to heal the wound could be was that the dagger had been forged in the breath of a dragon.

Merlin poured more and more magic into the boy, ignoring the insane cackling which came from behind him until he was forcefully dragged off Harry and held in the air by a single hand gripping the back of his robes. Merlin ignored Doremad's intervention, instead focusing more and more magic into Harry, ignoring the way it was starting to become painful, ignoring the burning which told him he was now using the magic which made up his soul, which gave him its life. Then, with a shuddering breath, Merlin collapsed.

And Harry Potter gasped as magic like fire seared through him. Forcefully closing his wounds, burning information into his brain. The wild magic danced as it settled itself within Harry Potter, joyful for the saving of the life of its new host. Even as it mourned the loss of its old one.

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Harry Potter awoke to see Morynn hanging limply in the grasp of the man who had chased him through the forbidden forest. A voice at the back of his mind whispered that the man was called Molltivro Doremad even as he wondered why the Slytherin that had acted so scathing towards him had healed him. For that could be the only explanation for what had happened. People didn't just wake up after being stabbed in the chest.

Harry watched with wide eyes as Doremad threw Morynn's (Melrin's, a voice whispered) body to one side, his breath catching in horror at the way his body crumpled, lifeless and useless against the trunk of the tree.

Doremad smirked. "Well, well, well. Harry Potter, the boy who lived."

Harry tried to inch away from the older man, but found himself unable to move as Doremad's smirk widened.

"Do you know who I am Harry Potter?" Doremad's voice was whisper soft and dripping in cruelty.

Harry shook his head wildly, eyes flicking back to Morynn, (or was it Merlin?) hating the limp stillness of the Slytherin. No matter how lifeless he looked, he couldn't be dead, could he?

Doremad sneered. "Well, boy." The way he said boy was filled with more hatred than even Snape's voice. "I go by Molltivro Doremad."

Harry knew that, but how had he known that his mind questioned wildly. It didn't make sense. He hadn't met the man before, so why?

"Though you may know me better as Lord Voldemort."

Harry's pulse spiked and he began almost hyperventilating as the realisation of who this was hit him.

"And you, little saviour." The word was spoken with venom and disgust. "Shall witness my finest hour. The hour I finally gain my immortality."

Harry tried to move. To do anything. He had to stop Voldemort. He couldn't be allowed to do this. He didn't know how he was going to do it, but Voldemort could not be allowed to gain immortality. But movement was beyond him. Even if he was no longer critically wounded, Harry just didn't have the strength to fight.

Yet a voice in his head whispered that everything would be fine, to not worry. That Voldemort was unable to gain that which he sought.

"Agumenti." Voldemort said, pointing the tip of his wand into the Cup of Life before cutting the palm of his hand and letting his blood run into the Cup as well.

Harry's eyes widened in horror, surely he could do something, as Voldemort brought the Cup to his lips and drank the mixture of blood and water contained within.

He reached out a shaking hand, even as he believed he was too late.

Voldemort stopped.

Faltered.

Fell.

Harry watched with wide eyes as Voldemort's body fractured and shattered, burning with a strange golden fire and turning to ash before blowing away on the wind.

And then he screamed.

The golden fire was within him too. He could feel it. It surged through him, and burst out of the lightning shaped scar on his forehead.

He collapsed shaking to the ground. He didn't understand what had just happened.

The voice in his head, he should probably be worried about that, answered him. Whispering of the unworthy splintered soul that asked for the blessing of magic. The voice that seemed vindictive in nature as it told him that Voldemort had died in complete agony for using such a forbidden magic, then daring to ask magic for the gift of immortality.

Harry's vision blurred and darkened. The last thing he saw before the world went black was the chestnut body of a centaur approaching him slowly across the clearing.

* * *

**I really am so so so so sorry**

**As I wrote this I was beating myself up inside**

**I know you're all going to hate me for what I've done**

**But it had to happen**

**I'm sorry**

**so so sorry**

**(on the plus side, only one chapter left)**


	20. Chapter 19 - The End

**AN at bottom**

* * *

Harry's eyes opened a crack, and he peered out at what lay before him.

The world was misty and grey, slightly out of focus and gave a sense that it wasn't really there.

"You've had your fun, my friend."

The voice came out of nowhere, and Harry sat up quickly, swinging his head this way and that, trying to find the source of the voice. Harry frowned. That sounded like Morynn (Merlin, a voice whispered in his head). Where was he? Was he alive?

"Do I know you?"

Another voice, but Harry didn't know this one. Who was it?

"I'm Merlin."

That was Morynn's (Merlin's) voice. But why was he saying that? Was it true? Was his name really Merlin, or was it someone else?

"So I don't know you."

There it was again, the other man, but who was it?

"No."

"Yet you called me a friend."

"That was my mistake."

"I think so."

"Yeah, I'd never had a friend who could be such an ass"

Was it just him, or was the smoke clearing?

"Or I one who could be so stupid."

Yes, the smoke was clearing. Harry could see something, shapes, just up ahead of him.

"Merlin, do you know how to walk on your knees?"

Merlin, that man sounded like a stuck up jerk. Harry winced, a lot like Draco and Morynn (Merlin).

"No."

"Shall I help you?"

"I wouldn't if I were you."

The shapes were sharpening. They looked humanoid now. Two people standing in the fog, arguing.

"What are you gonna do?"

The one on the left was the arrogant jerk. He was blond. Harry snorted, just like Draco.

"You have no idea."

Harry glanced at the one on the right and gasped. The man looked exactly like Morynn (Merlin). What was going on? Who was the other man? It made no sense. The two looked as though they didn't even realise Harry was there. Harry walked up to them, reached out to Merlin.

"Be my guest."

Harry jerked back as the blond man spoke again and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Come on. Come on! Come on."

The blond man was grinning, taunting Merlin as he stood straight, and looking down at Merlin. Merlin swung at him.

"I'll throw you in jail for that."

Merlin smirked at the blond man, and Harry stood up and walked towards the blond man, swinging his hand in front of his face, hoping for some reaction

"Do you think you're the king?"

Merlin's voice was mocking, and Harry found himself agreeing, even if Merlin was Morynn, even if he was a Slytherin.

"No, I'm his son – Arthur."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. The son of a king? That made the man a prince. Wait, the blond man had said his name was Arthur, and the Morynn lookalike called himself Merlin. Was it possible? There was no way. Was there?

The two men faded away, and in a moment of desperation, Harry grabbed at Arthur only for his hand to go straight through him.

Harry looked around. The men were gone. But had they really been there in the first place? Where was he?

Two more figures flicked into existence a few feet away, and Harry ran up to them.

His eyes widened and he gasped. The blond man – Arthur, was bleeding heaving, archaic chain main covered in a coat of blood. Yet even with such a deep wound, the man still glared, those eyes filled with hate.

Harry turned in the direction the man's eyes were facing. Merlin stood, clothes slightly torn, and he looked down at where Arthur was bleeding on the floor. His eyes were wide like a deer caught in the headlights. He looked terrified. Harry turned towards Arthur, he had thought the two hated each other, it had certainly seemed so in the last scene he had witnessed, and Arthur's glare seemed to support that. So why did it feel like Merlin was not terrified of Arthur, but rather of the hate in his eyes? Then again, the two looked older than they had been before. It was possible that years had passed between these two scenes.

"Stay away, sorcerer."

Harry flinched back from the hate in his words, even though it was not directed at him. He felt a moment of respect at the way Merlin seemed unaffected by the words.

"But Arthur, you're going to die!"

"I would rather die than accept help from a sorcerer. You're nothing more than a traitor!"

A traitor? So why did Merlin look so distraught. Surely that face was not one of a traitor, and why was being a sorcerer so bad. Wasn't that just another word for a wizard?

"Arthur . . ."

"Leave traitor. Magic can never have a place in Camelot. YOU can never have a place in Camelot!"

Camelot . . . So it was true, the man dying on the floor was really King Arthur. SO the other man was really the Merlin. But why did it seem as though Arthur hated magic, was he not known for creating a kingdom where muggles and wizards lived peacefully. Was that a lie? But if it wasn't then what reason could there be for such hatred?

"Arthur, please. Let me save you. You're going to die."

"Then let me die. That's what you wanted all along after all, sorcerer."

But his face did not look like that of someone who wanted Arthur to die.

"No, Arthur, please, let me save you. My magic –"

"Is a curse on me and my people, be gone!"

"No, Arthur, you don't understand."

"What don't I understand? My idiocy? For that's what it must have been for you to fool me all these years. You're Dragoon aren't you?"

Dragoon? Who was that?

"Well, yes. But Arthur –"

No buts – Merlin – you killed my father and you are a sorcerer. A monster. Leave Camelot. Never return!"

"Arthur please –"

"No sorcerer! If you have ever cared for me, as a friend or as your king, you will leave now!"

"Arthur," Merlin paused, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "As you wish . . . Sire" Merlin sounded distraught. Why couldn't Arthur hear that? "I shall leave."

Merlin turned, and he cast a single despairing glance back at the blond. "Goodbye, Arthur." His words were sad and spoken so low that Harry had to strain to hear him. Tears were in his eyes (and wasn't that strange, Morynn (Merlin) would have never cried; he had always seemed so untouchable), Merlin turned his back on Arthur, and the two men once again disappeared into nothing

"Kilgharrah!"

Harry jumped and spun when he heard Merlin's scream. His voice was filled with desperation, then his eyes widened.

Merlin stood, face turned upwards and before him, beating huge wings as it came closer, was a dragon. The dragon landed and turned towards Merlin.

Harry was filled with the urge to yell at Merlin to run, even though he knew the boy would not hear him. How could he stand before a dragon as though it was something he did every day?

"Greetings, young Warlock."

And now Harry just didn't know what to think. He was fairly certain that dragons were not supposed to speak. They were only animals after all.

"Kilgharrah," Merlin said again, and Harry could see the faintest twitch of a smile on the boy's face.

"What is it, young Warlock?"

"Arthur is dead. I failed. Mordred killed him. He wouldn't even let me try to save him. He says I betrayed him." Merlin's face was downcast, and Harry could see tears dripping down the boy's face as he spoke.

"Oh, young Warlock, do not weep. Arthur may have died this day, and you may not have fulfilled your destiny, but worry not. Arthur's words were spoken in shock and fear. Uther had poisoned the young king's heart against magic and in this life, there was likely little you could have done to change that."

"So what now?" Merlin's voice was small, almost non-existent. Harry could not help but feel as though he was intruding on an incredibly private moment.

"Now, young Warlock? Now we wait. For Arthur was not just any king. He was the once and future king. He may have died this day, and you may have failed in your destiny, but fear not. Arthur will rise again."

"He will?" Merlin's voice was just as quiet as before, but now it was filled with hope, and Harry could not help the smile that broke out upon his face.

"Indeed, young Warlock. It may not happen tomorrow, it may take a thousand, or even a million years, but Arthur will return to Albion, and when he does, the immortal sorcerer of the old religion shall be there awaiting his rising. Your destiny is not yet over, young Warlock. It has simply been put on hold."

"Immortal?" Harry whispered. There was no way, was there? Merlin had been immortal? But then surely that meant he could not have died?

"Sadly, that is not the truth, young Harry."

Harry's eyes widened, and he looked up in shock. Merlin was nowhere to be seen and the dragon, Kilgharrah, was looking straight at him.

"Merlin was immortal, this is true, but there had always been a way for him to die, something that he had always known.

"Wait, what do you mean? How, how can Morynn be Merlin? How can this be true? What's going on?!"

"From the beginning Merlin could have ended his life. I told him how, but he chose not to. No matter how much he wished to do to atone for his failure, no matter how painful thoughts of his King became, no matter how he felt he could not save Arthur when he returned, Merlin never chose to do so."

"How?" Harry asked, almost to himself. "If it hurt that much? To be alone for god knows how long…?"

"It was because he did not wish his own fate upon another."

"What?"

"In order for Merlin to die, he needed to pass his Magic, his life, his very fate upon another, and he could never bring himself to do that. To force his curse upon another, no matter how much he wished for death, he could never bring himself to do that."

Harry frowned, clenching his fists. "But why are you telling me this?!" he yelled in frustration.

"Because, young Harry, that night in the forbidden forest, all he could think of was saving you through any means necessary, no matter what it would mean for himself or for your future. He simply wanted you to live. And in doing so, through his Magic he has passed his destiny onto you. While before it was to be Merlin, now you will be the immortal Warlock to stand by the side of Arthur when he returns."

Harry stared up at the dragon. "Then-?"

"Yes, young Harry. Merlin is dead. He died to save you and to destroy Riddle."

"And I?"

"You are immortal young Harry."

Harry collapsed to the ground, trembling. It was too much to take in. It couldn't be possible, could it?

"So what now?" Harry asked, repeating Merlin's question from before.

"That is up to you young Harry. Should you choose not to return, then the centaurs will tell the castle that you have died in the fight against Riddle."

"And the death eaters?" Harry asked. "What of them?"

"They would have been killed in the backwash of magic that occurred when Riddle killed himself by drinking from the cup. The triple goddess is nothing but thorough, even those who followed him without taking on the mark would have died."

"There were those that followed him without taking on the dark mark?"

"Unfortunately so, your headmaster was one of them."

Harry looked up at Kilgharrah. "Then my life is mine to do with as I please?"

"Until Arthur rises, yes."

"I see." Harry murmured. "Thank you, Kilgharrah."

"It is my pleasure, young Warlock."

* * *

**IT IS OVER**

**this is the first story I have ever finished**

**and oh god does it feel good to do so**

**...**

**and I really am sorry I killed Merlin**

**I was miserable enough when I did it and then all your reviews made me completely depressed cos I didn't mean to upset you guys as much as I obviously did**

**Merlin was one of my favourite characters**

**TT**

**...**

**and before anyone asks**

**NO**

**I am not writing a sequel**

**At least not now**

**If I ever do so it will be in the far future**

**I don't mind if one of you guys wants to write a sequel to this though**

**but if you do please PM me first **

**cos I want to read it**

**I will also put up a chapter here to let everyone else know who is writing the sequel and what it is going to be called**

**(hint hint, I really don't want to write a sequel, but I admit the way I ended this sounds as though I am going to write one)**

**Thank you to everyone for reading**

**and an especially big thank you to everyone who reviewed **

**It has meant a lot**

**And has really helped me with the confidence to let other people read my work**

**(previously I would write and then hide the manuscripts cos I was too embarrassed to let people read my writing)**

**Goodbye**


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